I remember when I was a child waiting for Christmas to come. Once school was out for the holidays, we had long days at home waiting for the presents to appear under the tree. At our house, we gave each other presents on Christmas Eve and then Christmas morning revealed the “Santa” gifts. One year in my haste for Christmas, I stumbled upon my parents stash where they had hidden away our Christmas presents. Each present already had our names written on them. I decided that I couldn’t wait the three more days until Christmas to discover the treasures that I would be receiving, so I carefully opened each one to discover what was inside and then carefully wrapped them back. That was, perhaps, my worst Christmas. Not only was I disappointed in what had been chosen for me but all the excitement and anticipation of Christmas was gone. On top of that, when Christmas actually arrived, I had to fake excitement and surprise as I opened each gift. I was never again tempted to unwrap a present before its time.

God’s answers to prayers are that way sometimes. It is hard to wait. We want it now and we want it just the way we described it. Two things can happen when we are impatient with God. The first is that we simply decide that God has said “No” to our prayers because we didn’t see evidence quickly and so we stop praying.   When we stop, God often stops the process that was moving toward our answer.

The second thing is that we can run ahead of God and try to engineer our own solution. That typically has disastrous consequences. Before a battle with the Philistines, King Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to go to Gilgal and wait for Samuel to come and present a burnt offering to the Lord so that God might go ahead of them into battle. As the appointed day waned, Saul decided he could no longer wait for Samuel so he himself offered a sacrifice to the Lord, although Saul was not of the priestly tribe.   Just as he finished the sacrifice, Samuel arrived and declared, “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, ‘When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.’ ‘You acted foolishly,’ Samuel said. ‘You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command’” (I Sam. 13:11-14).

Waiting is often required if we want to see our prayers answered. Abraham waited decades after God’s clear promise of a son to see his wife Sara bear their first son Isaac. By the time the prayer was answered, Abraham and Sara both were well beyond the age of reproducing children. However, Abraham continued to believe God regardless of the natural circumstances surrounding the promise.

How do you maintain faith year after year for an answer to a prayer that has not yet come to pass? The answer is that you focus on the unchanging, faithful character of God and the promise he has made rather than focusing on the circumstances or the symptoms. We must choose to trust God rather than our eyes and believe his word rather than the words of Satan who will whisper that God does not keep his Word – at least, not for you. When Satan whispered to Eve that she would not surely die if she ate from the Tree, he essentially said that God does not keep his Word. Saul thought that Samuel had not kept his word so he ran ahead and offered the sacrifice himself. If Saul had waited 30 minutes longer he might have kept his kingdom.

Faith focuses on the promises not the circumstances and we are often forced to wait because God is preparing the way for our answer. Faith believes before a thing happens regardless of the time that is passing or the circumstances we see before us. When Israel crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho, they were forced to stand on the promise of God that he would give them the land and the city. They faced a walled city full of veteran fighters with men who had little to no combat experience. Then God commanded them to march around the city once a day for six days in silence before he acted. How foolish. How imposing the walls must have seemed. What taunts and jeers they must of heard from those walls.

And yet, God had told Israel that he would give them every place where they set their foot. For six days, they set their feet around Jericho. For six days they marked off their territory in the spiritual realm. For six days they were preparing the victory although they could not see any of that with their natural eyes. On the seventh day, they were told to march around the city seven times, and when the priests blew the ram’s horn the people were to shout and the wall would crumble. By faith they did just that.

Any rational approach to taking the city would have never considered anything like that. It would have seemed utterly foolish. But faith looked at the promise not the circumstances. F.F. Bosworth says, “Faith does not wait for the walls to fall down, faith shouts them down.” In other words, faith is not belief that arises after God has acted but is confidence that arises before he acts, simply standing on his promises.

When you have to wait for answers to your prayers, the focus must be on the promises of God and the character of God who never lies, rather than on the apparent circumstances. A focus on the circumstances gives Satan every opportunity to point out the enormity of the problem before you, rather than the enormity of the God who stands before your problem. Remember…those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. Blessings and may your prayers be answered quickly, but if they are not … continue to stand on the promises of God.

I believe that Satan’s greatest ploys against us are rejection, condemnation, and fear. Each of these is related to the others. Rejection leads to a feeling of condemnation and condemnation leads to feelings of fear. If we experience constant rejection as children, we will develop a sense that there is something wrong with us that keeps others from loving us and meeting our needs. That sense of defectiveness then brings on a sense of shame and self-condemnation expressed through the constant question, “What’s wrong with me?”

As we feel that, we begin to fear that our needs for identity(significance), protection, and provision won’t ever be met. When we begin to fear that no one out there will ever love us, protect us, or provide for us we take on an orphan mindset and begin to build all kinds of walls around our hearts to protect ourselves while at the same time becoming more desperate for someone to love. When we are desperate, we make bad decisions. We trade sex for the temporary feeling of love. We become control freaks in an effort to maintain any relationship that even hints at love. Or we give up and withdraw to places that human love can’t touch.

The real goal of Satan, is to get us to take our human fears, hurts, and disappointments and lay that template on God so that we assume or fear that he, like others before him, will not love us, protect us, or provide for us. If we could look back and see the invisible realm, we would discover that Satan is the one who had been whispering condemnation to us all along which robbed us of our self-worth (identity) and instilled fear in our hearts that our greatest needs would never be met.

I see this dynamic in the parable of the son who left home in Luke 15. Jesus told the story of a young man who grew up with a loving father who provided him with identity, security, and provision. However, the arrogance of youth overcame his surroundings and his good judgment. He demanded his inheritance long before his father died and departed for the big city. We are told, “He squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of the hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. ” (Lk.15:13-20).

Because of destructive choices, this young man had lost his identity. He had experienced rejection and abandonment from all of those who had been his friends when he used to party and he had felt the sting of hunger and homelessness. He no longer saw himself as the son of a wealthy father but as a hired man or a servant. He was full of shame and condemnation and he feared more rejection even from his father. This young man had forgotten who he was, but he had also forgotten who his father was. He had taken the template of his experiences in the world and laid that template on his father.

I have no doubt that he debated going home for much longer than he should. He anticipated that his father would pile shame on the shame he was already feeling and add rejection to the rejection he was already administering to himself. Only when he felt absolutely desperate did he decide to go home, take his father’s anticipated verbal beating, and settle in as a servant in order to survive.

That is the picture Satan always paints for us when we have stumbled or fallen. He whispers condemnation. “You are no longer worthy to be a son or daughter of God. You have sinned against God and are despised in heaven. You don’t belong there anymore and because you have defiled your birthright, God will no longer provide, protect, or treat you as family. At best, he will take you as a hired-hand, but all you will ever have will be hard work, meager food, basic housing, and the fear of being dismissed every day of your life.”

But that is not who God is and that is not who you are. When the son came home, he had already determined that he had squandered his position as a son. He awaited the disdain of a father whom he had forgotten. But the Father saw him when he was a long way off. He ran to the son and threw his arms around him. He stopped the condemning speech of the young man, declared that his son was home, put the family robe on him, slipped a son’s ring on his finger, and called for a celebration.

The father waited all that time without condemnation in his heart. He still considered the young man to be his son. He watched longingly for him daily and when the son returned with sorrow in his heart for the life he had lived, he was restored immediately with shouts of celebration. God is not a rejecting father or an abandoning friend. He is not the author of rejection, shame, or condemnation. Satan is the author and sustainer of those dark feelings.

When the enemy comes and whisper’s his lies, refuse to put the template of a worldly father or a failed friend or spouse on him for his love is an everlasting love. Even when we wander away, God always leaves the light on for us. When fear, rejection and condemnation come from the enemy, remember who God really is and who you are in Christ. Be sure to remind Satan as well.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. 1 Timothy 1:7

God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ Hebrews 13:5

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galatians 4:6-7

Last night, in a study I was leading about demonic spirits and deliverance, a standard question came up. I think it’s a good question and one that comes up frequently. I didn’t have time last night to answer it adequately, so I thought I would try to do a better job in a this and one more blog. The question was, “Why do most churches avoid teaching about demons and deliverance today when demons and deliverance are so prevalent in the pages of the New Testament?”

The answer to this question goes beyond discussions of demons and deliverance to the very heart of any supernatural or miraculous events in the Bible…including the resurrection. The 18^th century ushered in what has been labeled, The Age of Reason. Much had happened in previous decades to upset the established order of Western Europe. Abuses in the Catholic Church had prompted Martin Luther to protest and the ensuing Protestant Reformation undermined the dogma and political hold of the Catholic Church. As the Catholic Church came under fire, so did the biblical theology on which Rome stood. What was dangerous to question before, was suddenly fair game for European intellectuals. Not only was the Catholic interpretation of scripture challenged, but scripture itself became a target.

At the same time, science and medicine were making great strides.
Reason and logical deduction became the new bywords of “modern society.” In the cultural atmosphere of Western Europe and the United States, science and reason became the new gods. In the context of “the Age of Reason,” science and medicine became the proclaimed hope of mankind.

This 18^th century perspective invaded universities and the schools of theology within those universities. Suddenly, the scientific method was deemed the only valid way to discover truth. Reality only consisted of those things that could be observed, measured, and reproduced in a laboratory. Undoubtedly, there had been some dark days of superstition and inquisition in the centuries before the Age of Reason, but, instead of the pendulum swinging to a balanced middle position, it swung to the far side and a movement began to deny not only Biblical revelation as a source of truth, but also to deny the existence of God altogether.

The big fizz about Darwin’s theory of evolution was that if offered a natural mechanism that seemed to make God unnecessary.  Of course, the fossil record and numerous other scientific discoveries have left the theory untenable, but even the brightest minds of today doggedly hold on to it as a way to deny God and any personal accountability to a God. The intellectuals of the 18^th century, including theologians in major universities, began to “reason away” the supernatural aspects of our faith as events recorded through the lens of superstitious and backward people. Many began a movement to “demythologize” the scriptures and give naturalistic explanations to the miracles recorded in God’s word. Miracles simply weren’t scientific.

That thinking affected even Bible believing Christians and preachers who were not willing to throw out the miracles of the Bible but found an intellectually respectable middle ground. Their position was that the miraculous accounts of scripture were indeed true, but were limited to “Bible times.” Their view was that although God intervened in the lives of his people in miraculous ways throughout the Bible, he curtailed those supernatural activities somewhere around the end of the first century and has not been in the miracle business since. In today’s world, God still acts on behalf of his people, but only through natural means. This position is called cessationism and is the most prevalent view in American churches today.

This view is based on the assumption that the only reason Jesus and the apostles performed miracles was to validate who they were: Jesus as the Son of God and the apostles as his inspired representatives. Once the New Testament church was established and the Bible was completed and confirmed through first-century miracles, there was no longer any need for such supernatural events and, therefore, God has only worked through natural means for the past 2000 years. Any claim to the contrary, they say, is misguided at best and heretical or deceptive in worst cases.

As a result, when churches pray for the sick today, they rarely pray for supernatural healing but rather for God to guide the doctor’s hands. When a person is tormented by mental or emotional anguish, the church does not consider demonic affliction but simply turns God’s people over to the medical community (many of whom are unbelievers) and over to medications. When cancer is diagnosed, our first call will likely be to M.D. Anderson rather than to the elders of the church to come and pray for healing (see James 5:14-16). You can see that in the American church, we trust God to forgive our sins but we trust science, medicine, and government for the rest.

More on this in my next blog.  

When you are engaged in spiritual warfare, the word of God is essential. It is essential not only for discerning God’s will in a matter, but it is also a weapon to be used directly against the enemy. When confronting the enemy who is harassing, tempting, or afflicting you or someone else, the word of God is powerful. It is powerful because his word carries authority and authority directs power.

When describing the armor of God, Paul tells us that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17). The word translated as sword is a word that means a knife or a dagger rather than a large sword. That word suggests spiritual warfare in two contexts. The first context is hand-to-hand combat when the enemy is close and within reach. Spiritual warfare is often that way when the enemy is standing right in front of us as we minister deliverance to someone or when he is harassing us in our bedroom at three in the morning.   The second context can be understood as a moment when we use a knife or a dagger to dislodge an arrow or some shrapnel that has been fired at us by the enemy and has lodged in us…such as a fiery dart of the enemy.

The first context is battle. In the spiritual realm authority is critical. That’s why we are reminded over and over in the New Testament that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that he has a name that is above every name. In the context of battle, the word of God becomes a weapon because the word of God must be enforced by the army of heaven. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12). In the book of Revelation, John describes a vision of Jesus and says, “In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword” (Rev.1:16). That picture of Jesus establishes him as one with great power and authority. His words leave his lips as a sword with power to destroy.   In the book of Hosea, God told Israel, “Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you” (Hosea 6:5). Words direct the power and judgments of heaven so that when used as a weapon against the enemy, they can inflict harm.

In the wilderness temptation recorded in Matthew 4, Satan came to Jesus to tempt him in face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat. The devil always shows up when our strength (spiritual, emotional, or physical) is somehow depleted. Satan approached Jesus after forty days of solitude and fasting. His energy levels were low and he had been without the encouragement of friends or family for over a month. Satan, believing Jesus to be extremely vulnerable, came to tempt him as he did the First Adam.

Jesus fought back with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Jesus quoted scripture in response to every temptation of the enemy. I don’t believe Satan left Jesus only because he thought it was pointless to continue to tempt him. That was undoubtedly part of it, but I also believe the word of God inflicts pain on the enemy as a knife or dagger thrust. One thrust will typically not dispatch the enemy but several will leave him bloody and wounded and ready to run.

The words of believers carry authority and power. How else could the commands of God’s people bring healing and deliverance or even raise the dead? In the spiritual realm, our words have substance and weight. If our words have substance, how much more do the very words of God spoken from our lips carry weight? God spoke through Isaiah saying, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). Whether God’s word goes out through his lips or through ours, it will still fulfill its purpose.

Again, we are told that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. I believe when we declare that word with faith and conviction it cuts and bruises the enemy. When we are confronting the enemy, declaring appropriate scripture has a powerful affect that afflicts and torments the demonic. We should store up his word in our heart as much as possible and whip it out every time we encounter the enemy.

The second context of using the knife or dagger, which is the word of God, is when our faith, our joy, or our purpose has been wounded by a blow from the enemy. The fiery darts of the enemy (Eph. 6:16) that are extinguished by the shield of faith are undoubtedly lies that slip past our defenses – accusation, discouragement, weakness, etc. The word of God, then, reassures us and re-establishes our faith as we go back to the promises and the character of God. Each promise in the word digs out a piece of shrapnel or cleans out a wound left by the enemy. The word then can be wielded as a weapon against the enemy or as a scalpel useful for healing.

In the heat of battle or in a moment of treating wounds, declaring scripture strengthens our own faith in the moment while it weakens the enemy and torments him. Demons do not always depart with the first command. If a stronghold exists, you may have to “assault the walls of the enemy’s fortress” more than once with numerous commands. Declaring the word of God over that person or over a situation takes big chunks out of the bunkers of the enemy.

I remember one of our Freedom Weekends when a young woman was manifesting severely with a spirit of witchcraft. Her eyes were rolling back in her head, the spirit was growling at us, telling us that he hated us and that she belonged to him. We were commanding and he was resisting. It seemed like a stalemate until one of our team members was prompted by the Spirit to read Psalm 91 over the young woman, personalizing it with her name. As the word of God was read, the demon departed. The sword of the Spirit had its way.

Every believer should have a catalogue of scriptures on hand to wield against the enemy: scriptures that declare who Christ is, who we are in Christ, the defeat of Satan, the victory of the church, God’s willingness to heal and set captives free, and scriptures that defeat fear and temptation of every kind. As believers, our own words carry authority but the very words of God from our lips, carry even more power and authority with which to defeat and torment the enemy. Make a list, memorize them, and keep them handy.   We live in a dangerous world. Don’t leave home without your sword and remember, it’s always open carry.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 1 Corinthians 6:2-3

Whenever we engage in spiritual warfare we must first remember who Christ is and who we are in him. Everything else rests on that foundation. In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that he has all authority in heaven and on earth, that he has a name that is above every name, and so forth. We cannot enter into spiritual warfare with an expectation of winning if we do not already know that Jesus has already won the victory and that we are only enforcing what has already been determined. As many have said, we are not fighting for victory, but from victory.

The battles we fight in the spiritual realm today are parallel to the battles Israel fought when entering the Promise Land. The land had already been promised to the descendants of Abraham. In essence, God had already deeded the land to his people. It was his to give and he had given it. His people had a legal right to the land they were about to take. Suddenly, those who had been inhabiting the land were trespassers and Israel’s first task was to evict those who no longer had any claim to the property that was the inheritance of God’s people.

The irony of God’s gift to his people was that although it had already been given to them, they still had to take possession of what had been given. I know men and women who have been given land by parents or grandparents with an expectation that they would live on it someday and, perhaps, raise crops or herds on it. Sometimes the land had been developed but at other times it had not. The land belonged to them but they still faced the daunting task of clearing rocks, brush, and acres of mesquite trees. Wells had to be dug and fences erected. Unwanted critters had to be dispatched and others tamed. Hindrances to life and productivity had to be removed. Enemies, in all their forms, had to be uprooted and removed.

Israel faced the same dilemma, but instead of rocks, trees, and brush they were called to remove hardened enemies who lived in walled cities and who had experience with war. Some of them were “goliath-like” in size and temperament. And yet, the Lord promised to go before them and guarantee the victory if they would step out in faith and obedience. God was asking them to fight from victory rather than striving for victory. Israel failed to take the Promise Land when they first came to the Jordan River because they continued to believe that they had to fight in their own strength. They were not convinced that God would be strong and victorious for them. Israel still had the identity of slaves rather than sons of God. They still anticipated that the God who had defeated Pharaoh with plagues and ocean water would abandon them in the face of inferior forces.

We can also drift into that same mindset, thinking that God may or may not be there for us when we face the enemy. We can drift into the mindset that although God gave us the victory yesterday, we are not sure that he will do the same today. We know we are in that place when we pray or command out of a sense of hoping that God will come through rather than operating in a firm expectation that he will come through. We know we are in that place when we feel that we are facing the enemy in our own strength and skills rather than in the strength and authority of the Commander of the Armies of Heaven.

We are not slaves. We are not servants. We are sons and daughters of a God who does not change, does not abandon, does not sleep, and who never loses. We may exercise the power and authority of heaven because of who we are in Christ. It is not about our righteousness, our wisdom, or our performance. We are who we are because God has placed us in a position of favor, authority, and rule because of what Jesus had done.

What we need to remember is that we have exceptional standing with the God of Creation. We are sons and daughters, friends of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, co-heirs with Christ, ambassadors of heaven, appointed and anointed, seated with Christ in heavenly realms, and so forth. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6 that we have such standing that we will sit with Christ, judging both the world and angels, when the curtain comes down on this age.

When we begin to clear the spiritual land that God has given us, we need to spend a moment remembering who our Lord is and his immense, infinite power that he is always willing to wield on our behalf. We also need to remember who we are in Christ. We need to remember that because of a cross and an empty tomb, the victory has already been won and both the Father and Son have agreed to go into battle with us because they will never leave us or forsake us in any circumstance. The Spirit goes with us as well because he lives in us.

As we remind ourselves of who Jesus is and who we are in him, we should also remind the enemy of those two things as well before we pray, declare, or command.   Our confidence in both creates fear in the enemy. If we doubt who we are, the enemy is emboldened. Who we are does not change from day to day based on our spiritual performance that day. We are who we are in Christ. Even on bad days, our position allows us to call on the power of heaven to destroy the works of the devil because the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the best hell can offer. As you pray for healings, command spirits to depart, or declare God’s promises over “impossible situations,” take a moment to remember who you are. You are one of God’s chosen, who will judge the world and even angels and, through Christ, you are to exercise that authority even now. Be blessed today and know who you are.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you are probably interested in increase – more of the Spirit, greater expressions of your spiritual gifts, and more kingdom power operating in your life. All those are legitimate desires if we want them in order to be more effective in representing Jesus on the earth. If you desire an increase, then you are probably praying for the increase and pursuing it through books, conferences, and hanging around men and women who operate in the gifts you want to develop. You are probably going after impartations of the gift as well. Praying for increase tracks with Paul’s injunction to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor.14:1). In order for us to receive the increase we desire, we need to make sure that we have dealt with any hindrances in our lives that may be inhibiting that increase.Let’s consider a few so that each of us can perform a spiritual CT scan to see if something needs to be dealt with.

First of all, in his extensive writings on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Paul discussed the need to be motivated by love and a desire to build up the body of Christ. As you read Paul’s entire letter, it’s easy to see that the church at Corinth was extremely spiritually immature. They were exercising all the spiritual gifts in impressive ways but, apparently, the motive of many was self-serving: celebrity status, power, a sense of spiritual superiority, and so forth. Paul was quick to condemn any sense of spiritual elitism in the church or self-promotion, along with divisions and confusion in the church prompted by wrong motives in the exercise of spiritual gifts.

Spiritual gifts are to be an expression of God’s love directed toward those to whom the gift is touching. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Pet. 4:10). Any other motive will hinder the exercise of the gift and God will certainly hesitate to give an increase. We should check our motives from time to time. I’m not saying that we should not experience some kind of personal fulfillment through the exercise of gifts. We should and will. But if your thoughts are constantly about others admiring your for your gifts, advancing in personal influence in your church, or experiencing financial gain though your gifts, then check your heart.

A second hindrance is found in giving into the desires of the flesh and giving those desires a higher priority than the priorities of the Spirit. Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please” (Gal. 5:16-17). Since our gifts operate as an extension of the Holy Spirit, anything in us that is in opposition to the Spirit will hinder the flow of the Spirit in our lives.

Very few of us have all of our actions, thoughts, or emotions fully submitted to Jesus. We tend to be spiritually mature in some areas of our lives while still giving in to the flesh in other areas.

Some of us operate well in mercy gifts but have no boldness to confront sin or share out faith. Some of us are great intercessors but have little compassion for the poor. Some of us have great leadership qualities while harboring a secret addiction. Others of us prophesy while our eating and health habits are out of control. Others lead amazing ministries in their church while their marriage is rotting at home. You get the picture.

Without condemning ourselves, we need to acknowledge areas of our lives in which we are not walking by the Spirit. Paul clearly says that if we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the desire of the flesh. He doesn’t say that our fleshly desires will disappear, we just won’t give into them and their attraction will diminish overtime if our desires for the things of heaven are greater than the promptings of our flesh.

In order to surrender an unsubmitted part of our life to the Spirit, we need to acknowledge it first. The truth is that some of us are unaware of our unsubmitted parts or rationalize them as being spiritual in some way. A rude and critical person may frame those qualities as being honest and transparent. A stingy person may call his lack of generosity good stewardship of his God-given finances. A judgmental person may define that judgment as a “gift of discernment.” We can all have blind spots. David knew that so he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps.139:23-24) Ask God to show you any unsubmitted areas and ask your friends or spouse to tell you kindly, but honestly, what they see.

Once we have discovered an area of our life that is out of step with the Spirit, then we should search to see what the Word says about our thoughts or behaviors and then repent. Having done that we need to make transformation in that part of our life a point of prayer until we know we have matured in that area. Asking a few close friends to hold us accountable for change is typically needed as well.

A third step is to check to see if some demonic influence is keeping us out of step with the Spirit and, in doing so, limiting the increase we desire. Satan certainly doesn’t want you to have more of the Spirit, be more effective with your gifts, or walk in greater spiritual power. Many of us believe that if we are in church, serving in ministries, and even serving as leaders in the kingdom, we could not possibly be under the influence of a demon.

My experience is that leaders and spiritually gifted people are often under the influence of a spirit that has subtly gained entrance through the years and that is manifesting in subtle ways. A spirit of heaviness may simply be written off as stress and fatigue – for the last eighteen months. Many leaders struggle with discouragement, frustration, anger, nagging jealousies, lust, love for money, loneliness, condemnation, and so forth. A demonic spirit may well be the source. A wise believer and a mature believer, from time to time, should have someone who is experienced in deliverance check out the possibility that a spirit is hindering his/her walk.

As we seek more, we should be wise enough to stop occasionally to determine whether there may be something in our lives that is inhibiting the increase. A hunger for more is a positive spiritual quality but it is not the only condition for receiving more. Perfection is certainly not required but ignoring glaring issues in our lives is not the way to increase. There may be something we need to submit to Jesus before we can be good stewards of more gifts or greater anointing. Blessings in Him.

We are told that by Jesus, that Satan is a thief who comes to kill, steal, and destroy (Jn.10:10). With that in mind, there seems to be historic periods when Satan is more active or, at least, more successful in his trade than at other times. If Adam handed the keys over to Satan through his sin, then it follows that an increase in sin increases the authority of the enemy to be about his business. I believe that is because the hand of God typically restrains the enemy but people and nations often force God to remove his hand of protection.

The Book of Job gives us some insight into that principle. In the beginning of Job, Satan comes before the Lord and the Lord points out his servant Job as a model of righteousness in the earth. Satan replied, ““Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face” (Job 1:10-11). Satan’s complaint was that God had placed a protective barrier around Job, his family, and his possessions. Why did he need a protective hedge? He needed the hedge because Satan is always poised to kill, steal and destroy – especially anything that is good or godly. Satan’s accusation was essentially that God only received praise from his people because they were always blessed. Take away the blessing, he argued, and your “servants” will not find you so worthy of praise. God needed a champion and Job was selected. God then set limits on what Satan could touch. The implication is that Satan would have gladly visited Job with total disaster long before this moment if God had not restrained him.

We see another version of this principle in Ezekiel. “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezek.22:30-31). This is a moment when the rebellion of Israel had brought God to the brink of judgment on the nation. His love looked for some way to avoid judgment while his righteousness demanded it. He said that he had looked for someone who would stand between him and Israel like Moses did in the wilderness as he aked for mercy for a rebellious nation. The plea would have been enough to at least justify putting off the judgment since “mercy triumphs over judgment.” Mournfully, God said that he could find no one who would truly intercede for the nation so judgment would have to come.

My belief is that Satan is always at the door, desiring to unleash suffering and destruction and is limited only by God’s edicts restraining him. When people or nations demand judgment by their own persistent godlessness and rebellion in the face of God’s pleas for them to return to him, God eventually can find no just cause for mercy. He then simply lifts his hand of restraint and Satan has his way.

As a person, family, or nation persists and increases in sin, I believe God has to honor our choices and so he begins to lift the restraint like slowly opening a floodgate and letting more and more water through until the gate is fully open and massive destruction occurs downstream. In this case, the floodgate lets in more and more demonic powers and we see more and more evidence of evil, destruction, natural disasters, violence, and tragedy. Even God’s people are caught up in the flood of increasing judgment. We see that principle in the book of Daniel when he and his three righteous friends are deported to Babylon along with many other Jews. They also lost their homes and their families and had to endure the forced march to a foreign nation. There they continued to be under attack by Satan who subjected them to persecution for their faith. Though God sustained them, they still experienced suffering because of the sins of their nation and their leaders.

As our nation and leaders continue to call evil things good and good things evil; as they continue to forbid the presence of God in our schools and government buildings: and as they persecute followers of Christ while deferring to Islam and the homosexual agenda, the flood gates of judgment will continue to open more and more. The demonic will be given greater presence and their presence will be manifested in greater spikes of tragedy, violence, illness, floods, storms, attacks, and perversity in the nation. The question then becomes, is there anything believers can do about it?

There are several things we can do. First of all, stand in the gap and pray for your family, community, church, and nation. Pray for God’s mercy and forgiveness for the nation and for his Spirit to work righteousness in this country or in the life of an individual for whom you are praying.

When its time to vote, vote for the candidate who will most likely steer the country toward biblical values or who will less likely steer us away from biblical values. The choice may not be clear and there may not be a faithful believer in the mix, but even a nominal believer or a non-believer who is not hostile toward the gospel is a better choice than those who clearly and aggressively support ungodly values. Many Christians may refuse to vote for anyone who is not a sincere Christian but that plays into the hands of the devil. Sometimes, our vote does not usher in righteous leadership but less evil leadership. That is still a better choice that handing the nation or a community over to those who actively war against the gospel.

Secondly, do your part to increase righteousness in the land and push back against the devil. Begin with increasing righteousness in your own life. Living in an ungodly culture dulls our senses to the sin and lethargy in our own lives. Measure your life by biblical standards rather than cultural standards and make adjustments where needed. Actively pray for the church and against the devil. Pray for God to pour out his Spirit on the church in America for a move of unprecedented power, love, evangelism, and a boldness to once again be the conscience of the nation.

Learn how to engage in spiritual warfare. The real battle for an individual, a family, or a nation will be won or lost in the spiritual realm. Aggressive prayers and declarations of God’s truth and promises push back the enemy and liberate hearts and souls. Share your faith with others. That is also spiritual warfare. The most powerful way to defeat the enemy is to take away his soldiers – not by killing them but by making them soldiers of the Cross.

America is experiencing more and more turmoil, economic chaos, and decline because the church stopped evangelizing those around us and because the church withdrew from the realm of secular leadership. We turned leadership over to unbelievers and we are paying the price. All of that can be reversed if the church will exercise her authority over the devil and if believers will step up and lead again beginning with city councils, school boards, state governments and so forth. It may seem overwhelming but nothing is impossible with God. God gave believers stewardship of this nation founded on biblical truths and principles and through the years we turned it over to those who do not fear or regard God.

Israel often did the same thing but there were generations who once again responded to God and God once again blessed the nation with peace and prosperity. I am certain the prayers of a few sparked those revivals of faith and we can do the same. Jesus declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church but that promise pictures an aggressive church pushing Satan and his servants back into the hole from which they came. It’s time to do just that. Our children’s future depends on our prayers and actions today. Be blessed in Him.

Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ “ Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful. ”After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

During the reign of Jehoshaphat, a vast army came up from Edom against Israel. They were clearly greater in numbers and power than the forces of Israel, so Jehoshaphat cried out to God, saying, “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chr. 20:12).

There are times in our lives that we simply don’t know how to respond to the event or the dilemma before us. There are truly things against which we have no power and no answers. Jehoshaphat recognized his dilemma when three kings combined their armies against Israel. He showed wisdom in two things: (1) He acknowledged his own limitations, and (2) he acknowledged that God has no limitations. He then simply declared, “Our eyes are upon you.” There are times we must choose to trust God and see what God will do on our behalf. Our faith falls on the nature of God and who he is for us – his chosen people. Every crisis, every dilemma offers the opportunity to discover more of who the Father is for us. We look to see what will he do out of his nature and his love for us.

Sometimes, we are taken by surprise. Jehoshaphat was stunned that God had even allowed these armies to form and conspire against Israel, but they were, in fact, marching briskly toward Jerusalem. The text says that all the men of Judah, with their wives and children, stood before the Lord and waited for a response. In that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the priest, who declared to the king and the assembly, “This is what the Lord says to you, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God’s…take up your positions, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you” (2 Chr.20:15-17).

We need to understand that Old Testament battles are our blueprints for spiritual warfare. In the face of overwhelming news, the Lord reminded his people that they did not fight out of their own strength but out of his. They were to take up their positions, but primarily to witness what God would do for them. Their part was to show up for the battle but then to begin to praise and worship the Lord. As they began to turn their hearts toward Jehovah and lift up praise, he began to set ambushes. The three armies that had combined their forces against Israel were suddenly afraid, confused, and turning on one another. They slaughtered one another without Israel wielding one weapon in the natural realm. All that was left was to pick up the plunder left behind by these defeated armies.

Satan loves to intimidate and send forth a spirit of fear when he moves against God’s people. Sometimes we can overcome the enemy with the divine weapons and strategies God has already given us. At other times, what he has shown us in the past seems inadequate for the present. In those moments he is preparing to show us something new. Our part is to trust him to be who he is for us. God is unchanging. Every example of battle in the Old Testament records victory for God’s people when their hearts were turned toward him. God, by his very nature, is victorious. He cannot be anything else and he always wants to be that for his people.

Secondly, we must take up our positions and stand as children of the King, soldiers of Christ, and the faithful who have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind – a mind in harmony with the mind of Christ. We are to take up our positions with our eyes on God, waiting to see the victory and the good that God will bring out of inexplicable tragedies. It is the nature of God to create good – to create victory out of the very things Satan means for harm.

When there seems to be no adequate response to the enemy then, the most powerful weapon we can roll out is the weapon of praise and worship with our eyes fixed on the Father, the Son and the Spirit. When we worship we defy the enemy who has tried to intimidate us and take away our hearts. When we worship we remind ourselves of who God is and who he is for us. When we worship, we increase the presence of God against whom the enemy cannot stand. When we worship in the face of overwhelming odds or tragedy we can be sure that God is setting ambushes in the spiritual realm, confusing the enemy, and turning demons against one another. We then will claim the victory that Satan had once claimed. A cross and three spikes is the ultimate example of God drawing incredible good out of what seemed to be inexplicable tragedy and loss.

When we feel overwhelmed and are left with no discernable response to something that has happened, then we are to set our eyes on the Father, take up our positions in anticipation of seeing who the Father will be for us, and then worship. God will take care of the rest.

There is nothing like a championship game, won in the final seconds when your team was down and victory seemed impossible. Suddenly, the opposing team, who seemed to dominate the entire game, begins to falter. Your team begins to surge and in the last moment the unbelievable pass to the end zone or the three point shot from the edge steals the victory when all seemed lost. God specializes in those wins. It seems to take the heart out of the enemy even more than if we always dominated. It also allows us to cheer louder for our Great King who always comes through because that is who he is. Wait, praise, and see what God does. You will be amazed.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Okay, let’s be honest. Don’t you just hate the verses above? Be joyful about all the trials you face in life! Be excited about being in a crisis that drags on so long that endurance becomes an issue! Let endurance have its perfect result! My natural man doesn’t want any part of that. I just want God to deliver me from every trial as soon as my first prayer hits the outskirts of heaven. In fact, why won’t God just keep trials from coming in the first place? A little speed bump once in a while would be okay but no storm tossed oceans please!

And yet the storms come anyway. Jesus told us so. “In this world you will have trouble” (Jn.16:33). The problem is that when we signed on to be a follower of Jesus, we were usually not told the whole story by well-meaning evangelists. Our introduction to following Jesus went sort of like old navy recruiting posters that declare, “Join the navy and see the world!” The background on the poster always had palm trees and sandy beaches or other exotic destinations like Tokyo. The impression was that a young man would sign up, do a little basic training and spend the rest of his tour in Hawaii or Tahiti or some pleasant, peaceful, exotic location. However, after signing up, he found himself in forty-foot seas in the frigid northern Atlantic, dodging missiles in the South China Sea, or sweating his way through the Panama Canal.

The fact is that those who follow Jesus are in a war against the world and the devil. Trouble is sure to come. We will experience protracted trials that tax us. There will be seasons of peace and blessing but those seasons will be punctuated by seasons of crisis. Most believers push back against that reality.

Graham Cooke puts it this way. Many Christians cannot tell the difference between warfare, adversity, the work of the cross and training for reigning. They don’t persist; they crumble. An instant society depletes our strength. People are in huge amounts of debt, because they cannot wait; they have not patience to save money, then purchase. They mortgage their future to buy trinkets and then declare that God is providing, which may be true. I mean, MasterCard sounds spiritual. A Visa gives you permission to enter, I suppose. Servicing the debt denies us true flexibility to serve the Lord…To say “yes” to Jesus we must say “no” to something else…

To be a world-class musician, athlete, or actor, it means we have to know what our distractions are going to be and plan to overcome them. We have to affirm the need for personal discipline and develop a desire for it. We have to endure hardness, learn to persist when people around us want to give up, and cultivate perseverance as a way of life. Ordinary people call it obsession because it suits their own purposes. It’s passion – an intense enthusiasm for something and it requires disciplined pursuit, a focus of attention that mediocre people never attain” (Graham Cooke, Coming into Alignment, p. 77-78, Brilliant Book House).

Whether we hate what James said about endurance or embrace it depends on our perspective of the Christian life. If our desire is to live in as much comfort as possible while coasting across the finish line then we avoid hardship at every turn and either despise the storms or puzzle about them. If, however, we reject spiritual mediocrity and desire to be great men and women spiritually, then we see storms as an opportunity to sharpen our skills, grow in strength, learn valuable lessons for the next storm, and to be heroic in the face of forty-foot seas.

Two teams face off for the super-bowl today. Both teams faced weeks of pre-season workouts, hours in the weight room, thousands of wind sprints, nagging injuries, a few hard losses, and criticism and stupid questions from the press. They didn’t laugh through all of that but they appreciate the values of hardship because it has made them hard for today’s game. Those hardships that lead to victory today make the victory even more valuable. Enduring the process has made them fitter, wiser, more talented, and hungrier for the win.

James’ little paragraph at the beginning of this blog is all about that. It’s not that we look for trials. We don’t have to; they are looking for us. But when they come, we see beyond the hardship and recognize the value of enduring, refusing to quit, and refusing to doubt. In the end we are stronger, wiser, more skilled in spiritual warfare, and hungrier for the win. That is when endurance has had its perfect work. Remember that in your trials because endurance will make champions of us all.

I’ve been teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven lately. It is a central concept in the New Testament but I believe it is a very misunderstood concept among most Christians today. As you begin to browse the gospels, the Kingdom of Heaven (synonymous with the Kingdom of God) is introduced very early. It is the central theme in both the preaching of John the Baptist as well as the teaching of Jesus. “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Mt.3:1-2) and, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near’” (Mt. 4:17). All in all, the phrases kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God show up in the New Testament about a hundred times.

During the period that Jesus continued to roam the earth after his resurrection, we are told, “After his suffering he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Jesus began and ended his public ministry declaring that the Kingdom of God had come to earth.

Most believers think about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God as something the faithful will experience after the funeral. In their minds it is a very abstract concept, out there somewhere, with little relevance to our lives on planet earth. But both John the Baptist and Jesus declared that the kingdom of heaven was near. They did not mean that it was coming soon but rather that it was within reach of those who believe. They were teaching that by faith, a man might just reach out and take hold of the kingdom. Jesus clearly taught that there was a concrete expression of the kingdom of heaven on the earth available to those who had faith to grasp it. To doubting Jews, Jesus said, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you (Lk.11:20).

The first thing we need to understand is that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of power. Paul put it this way. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor.4:20). We can understand from Paul’s statement that the kingdom includes an expression of heavenly power on the earth – supernatural power. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” A strict definition of the coming of God’s kingdom on the earth is the will of God being done on earth just as it is in heaven. Whenever Jesus or those who followed him preached the kingdom, they followed with a demonstration of the kingdom of God on earth – healings, deliverance, resurrections, miracles, etc.

There is no sickness in heaven because perfect health is God’s will for his children. Healing on earth is an extension of God’s will from heaven to earth. There is no demonic oppression in heaven for God’s will prohibits the presence of the enemy there. Deliverance is a concrete extension of God’s heavenly will on the earth. Love is the atmosphere of heaven. On the earth, the Spirit of God enables believers to love one another as Christ loves us and even to love our enemies. The kingdom of God on earth is the manifestation on earth of the same things that God desires for his children in heaven.

Jesus drew on the power and provision of heaven so that God’s will could be expressed on the dusty roads and hillsides of Palestine. That power is made available to those who believe and through those who believe. Paul made this power a point of prayer for the church at Ephesus. “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead…(Eph.1:18-20). That power is for us and works within us. Paul also said, “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Col.1:29).

The good news of the kingdom of God is that the power, provision, protection, and atmosphere of heaven can be displayed on the earth through God’s people whose primary citizenship was transferred from earth to heaven when they were born again and added to the family of God. In Philippians 3:20, Paul declares that our citizenship is in heaven (now) and in another place declares that we are currently seated with Christ in heavenly realms (Eph.2:6). As believers, our reference point for life should not be the earthly, natural realm but the heavenly realm as members of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus had mastery over disease, demons, storms, loaves and fishes, and even death because he lived as a citizen of heaven, representing God’s glory and will on the earth. Many of us live as if there is no power in our faith. We live as if we must simply survive until the return of Jesus. But we are commanded to go into all the world and make disciples of nations before the return of the Lord. If we have been taught to pray, “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth…” then God wants his will done here and now, not later. Jesus established the Kingdom on earth and then gave us the mission of expanding that kingdom as we push back the borders of the enemy.

That expansion of the kingdom takes power, supernatural power to overcome the strongholds of the enemy. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that through his death, burial, and resurrection he has once again launched the kingdom of heaven on earth and has ransomed us so that we are participants in that kingdom. If we believe that, it changes everything.

If I believe in my heart that the kingdom has come in concrete ways and that I am a citizen of heaven, then I know that the resources of heaven are available to me so that I might complete his mission. When crisis comes, I no longer draw on my weakness, but God’s strength. When provision is needed, I no longer consider my lack but God’s abundance. When tragedy arises, I no longer look at my brokenness but God’s enabling grace. There is no lack in heaven, no weakness in heaven, and no one ever feels overwhelmed there. God’s presence makes the difference and his presence is in us. When I know that, and face every situation from my seat in heaven rather than from my inadequacy on the earth, life changes. It is the remedy to fear, depression, lack, insignificance and the rest of what ails us all. Welcome to the kingdom!