One of Satan’s primary strategies against God’s people is accusation.  In fact, he is called “the accuser of the brethren” in Revelation 12.  He is shown to accuse us before God at every opportunity.  He also accuses us through hurtful people in our lives and he accuses us to ourselves in our thought life.

He accuses us in the sense that we often have thoughts that we are not worthy or not qualified for the things God is calling us to.  Perhaps, we have thought of volunteering for some ministry role but have quickly decided we didn’t know enough, weren’t gifted enough, weren’t spiritual enough, or whatever.  We quickly talked ourselves out of saying “yes” to an invitation to serve in an important role or of saying yes to a role that we simply knew was needing to be filled.

Churches often need people to step up and serve in roles they have not served in before – camp counselors, marriage mentors, small group leaders, coordinators, table leaders, etc., but no one steps up because they don’t feel qualified.  At other times, we may feel prompted to talk to someone about Jesus, but that little voice tells us we don’t know enough Bible or we won’t know what to say, or we will embarrass ourselves and Jesus.  At other times, we feel prompted to talk to someone about the destructive direction of their life, but then the voice convinces us that our own life is such a mess, who are we to talk to them about their bad decisions?

The voice of the accuser constantly insists we are not enough, we don’t know enough, we aren’t spiritual enough, and are doomed to fail.  His goal is to limit us, discourage us, and disempower us.   But God has always called the weak, the unlikely, the inexperienced, and the reluctant to greatness. One of my favorites is Gideon.

In Judges 6, Israel was under the boot of Midian.  Because of their rebellion and idolatry, God had lifted his hand of protection and left them to the oppression of their enemies. Because of their suffering, Israel called out to God for deliverance.  God answered and the text says:

“Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:11-13). Then the Lord said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”

The angel of the Lord called Gideon a mighty warrior.  As we read the text, it is clear that is how God saw him, not how Gideon saw himself. In response to God’s call, Gideon described himself as a man whose clan was the weakest in Manasseh and he was the least in his family.  In other words, ”I’m not qualified to be a warrior or a leader.  I’m a nobody.”  There is no indication that Gideon was a leader among his people or that he had any training in warfare.  God just showed up and told him to go deliver Israel from Midian.

It’s important to note that he told Gideon to go “in the strength he had.”  He didn’t tell him to wait until he was ready or until he had years of leadership training.  In essence, he was telling Gideon to go as he was and God would make up for whatever he lacked. 

God most often picks the inexperienced and the uncertain because those men and women are forced to depend on God, not on themselves.  They will listen to him and often use God’s unorthodox methods because they don’t already have their own way of doing what God is calling them to do. In our weakness, God gets the glory.

Another important point this text reveals is that we don’t always have to be full of faith to be used by God. Gideon was cautious. He was uncertain…not about God, but about himself.  He asked for signs to confirm it was God who was talking to him rather than Satan or his own imaginations.  In the same chapter, the angel who had brought the word of the Lord to Gideon, touched an offering Gideon has placed before him with the tip of his staff and it burst into flame as the angel disappeared.  Gideon cried out that he had seen the face of the Lord.  He apparently expected to die, because God immediately spoke to him saying, “Peace. Do not be afraid. You are not going to die” (Jgs. 6:23). 

God’s first command was for Gideon to tear down a nearby altar to Baal and the Asherah pole that was next to it, build a proper altar, and sacrifice a bull to the Lord.   Gideon took some men and went to do as the Lord commanded, but did so at night because “he was afraid of his father and the townspeople.”  So he obeyed the Lord, but he did so in the face of his own fear.  God did not rebuke him.  Gideon was going in the strength he had.  When we feel nervous and insecure as we try to follow God’s leading and his call, the enemy will rush into to rebuke us for a lack of faith.  But God was pleased with is obedience, even though his faith was not fully formed.

After that incident, Gideon asked for another sign that God was truly going to use him to deliver Israel from Midian.  He determined to place a wool fleece on the threshing floor at night.  He asked God to see to it that in the morning the fleece would be soaked with dew and the ground would be dry.  In fact, that is what God did.  But, just to prove this was not meteorological anomaly, he asked God to reverse the procedure the next night.  In the morning the fleece was dry and the ground was soaked. 

Then, as Midian and Israel camped across from one another and the first battle loomed, God said to Gideon, “If you are afraid to attack, go down to their camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying.  Then you will be encouraged.” Again, God took note of Gideon’s insecurity and met his need for encouragement.  As you read Judges 7, you will see the unorthodox strategy that God used to defeat the Midianites. Gideon goes on to be a judge of Israel and grew in confidence as God gave him future victories.

My point is this.  When we sense God’s call on or lives or feel his prompting to let him use us in some way, we need to recall that, in most cases, willingness, even when coupled with fear and insecurity, is all God is asking.  Then he steps in and makes up for our lack.  The adventure of faith is seeing God come through, but we will never see it if we never place ourselves in uncertain situations. 

Don’t let the accusations from the enemy keep you from saying “yes.”  Ask for some kind of confirmation, if you like, that God is calling you to that moment or to that ministry.  God will not be offended because we want to be sure we are following his leading not the leading of the flesh. But don’t let the devil talk you out of your destiny that God established for you before the creation of the world.  Make up your mind.  The next time God calls and we feel totally unqualified, say “yes” anyway.  You will be saying “yes” to God and “no” to Satan.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” Ephesians 3:20

I have served as an associate pastor in conservative, Bible-believing churches for over forty years. Much of my ministry has been devoted to counseling individuals and married couples from my congregation and community. In the first twenty years of ministry, I consistently struggled with two issues in the life of my church and my own life: the level of brokenness in the Body of Christ, even among longtime believers, and the powerlessness I felt on too many occasions to truly help. In counseling sessions, I could accurately identify the issues and give people insights into their struggles, but I had no tools or techniques to reachthe deeply wounded places from which all their destructive behaviors continued to spring. Many of the people I worked with were sincere believers who had been in and out of counselors’ offices for years but had never truly gained victory over their “issues.” Even the Word and prayer could not seem to overcome the brokenness in these individuals, which eventually seeped like toxic waste into their relationships…especially marriages.

Deep inside, I sensed a huge disconnect between what I saw on the pages of the New Testament and what I witnessed in my church. What I saw in Scripture were radically changed lives. I saw the Apostle Paul, miraculously transformed himself, writing to once profoundly broken people in Corinth who then seemed to have been truly set free to grow in Christ.

There was no mention of professional counselors or even “trained therapists” in the church or any expectation that people would need to “manage their issues” over decades. There was no suggestion that addictions required residential programs in mental health facilities followed by years of support group involvement. There was no hint that homosexuals were hopelessly locked into an identity shaped by genetics or that a myriad of psychological and emotional struggles could only be managed with drug therapies. What I saw in Scripture was the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit doing life together and people being truly set free and transformed.

Paul wrote, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9–10).

Here Paul lists the same issues that torment us today: sexual immorality, gender confusion, substance abuse, perversions, materialism, criminality, and more. But he declares that through Christ, lives had been changed and identities transformed. Brokenness was relegated to the past, and those believers now walked in newness of life. They were, indeed, new creations. Ragtag fishermen stood before governors as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, sleazy tax collectors became radical philanthropists overnight, and the Mary Magdalenes, once demon-possessed, were now fully possessed by God.

For me, there was a great gulf between what I read and what I saw. In my heart, there was always a longing for more. But I had been trained not to expect “more” and if I did see “more,” I was taught to be suspicious. My church’s theology presented a gospel in which God, in an orderly universe, had ceased dispensing miracles and radical-life-change long ago. The pages of the New Testament were full of promises and stories that truly did happen, but only in the days of Jesus and the apostles. I sensed, however, that if you jettison the miracles, you also jettison the power and in doing so, you quench the Holy Spirit and neuter His ministry. I needed that power in my own life just as much as the wounded people I served.

Eventually, God called me out of that fellowship of believers.  These were good people who loved Jesus and loved his word.  But they had essentially been taught to love God, lead a moral life, and do the best they could until Jesus called them home.  But in many cases, they were in bondage to something they couldn’t shake and yearned for “more,” but were not certain what that was.  Numbers of good people left that fellowship as well looking for whatever the “more” was.

I found “the more” when I found the supernatural power of Jesus displayed through his Spirit. I saw people transformed in a few weeks or even in a few hours – truly set free from whatever bondage they had been shackled to…anger, pornography, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and more.  What’s more is that they did not relapse into their old conditions as many do after secular counseling.

Scripture is clear that there is a supernatural realm surrounding us that intersects with our lives every day.  That realm operates on power and authority. Paul declared emphatically that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12).  The gospels illustrate encounters not only with angels but also demons.  These unclean spirits torment people in all kinds of ways.  Scripture names many…a spirit of fear, a spirit of heaviness (depression), a spirit of divination (witchcraft), deaf and dumb spirits, spirits of sexual immorality, a spirit of bondage, and more.

Many churches send their members to secular counselors or counselors who are Christians but who have not been trained to deal with the spiritual realm in their counseling.  If an issue has a spiritual root but they do not deal with the spiritual forces of evil, the best they can do is help people manage or cope with their issues, but they will never get real freedom.  I have counseled several believers who were once members of witch’s covens.  When I asked them what drew them to witchcraft, they said their lives were out of control and the church could not help them…so they were drawn to the power they saw in witchcraft.  If they had seen Christ’s power in the church, they would not have run to Satan.

Many believers are looking for “more” in their walk with Jesus.  They don’t know what it is, but they sense something critical is missing.  That missing component is the power and authority of Jesus displayed through his people! Paul said, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power (1 Cor. 4:20).  In these end times, Satan is and will be ramping up his activities in ways we have never seen before.  Believers who try to withstand the enemy without the power of the Holy Spirit and divine weapons for spiritual warfare, may well be overwhelmed.  If you are looking for “more,” let me encourage you to find a church that believes in and walks in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Be sure there is a good balance of Word and Spirit.  Word without the Spirit is powerless and Spirit without the Word tends to get weird.  But pray and ask God to lead you to that church.  You are going to need it.

During the days when David and his men and were hiding from King Saul, David had been hiding among the Philistines and pretending to be an ally with them against Israel. As the Philistines prepared to go into battle against Saul and his troops, many of the Philistine rulers did not want David to join them for fear that he would actually fight for Israel. So, David and his men were told to return to Ziklag, where their families were waiting.  After a three-day journey, David and his men came home to find disaster waiting for them. 

Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. (1 Sam. 30:1-6).

David and his men were undoubtedly exhausted by the time they reached Ziklag.  They had to be wondering what was happening between the Philistine armies and Israel.  Much of their future seemed to hang on the outcome. If victorious, Saul would still hunt David and his men and would surely have found out David had been with the Philistines.  He and his men would then be branded as traitors along with being marked as outlaws.  If the Philistines won the day, David might find himself out of favor with them and would then be caught in between the two rival nations.  

Exhausted and uncertain about their future, they arrived home to find their city burned and their wives and children gone. In their condition, they felt hopeless and betrayed by David who had led them away from their families, exposing them, and placing them in an intolerable position.  In their exhaustion, fear, hopelessness, and bitterness, they even spoke of stoning David. David was distraught himself, but now also faced the wrath of his men.

The text, however, says that David “strengthened himself in the Lord.”  Satan never shows up when we are fresh, full of faith, and ready for a fight.  He shows up when we are tired, uncertain, and perhaps, feeling betrayed by someone in our lives.  Then he always piles on one more thing that seems crushing in the moment…that “one-thing-after-another” scenario.  Even the best of us can crumble in those moments.

Remember Elijah after facing all the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.  He had seen God send down fire and in the strength of the Spirit, had killed hundreds of the false prophets. Immediately after his amazing, miraculous victory, he received a message from Jezebel that she would have his head by the next day. This “one-more-thing” sent Elijah into a fit of despair and defeat.  This great man of faith who had just seen God do miracles, crumbled under the weight of her threat.  Even after great victories, we can be spiritually depleted and vulnerable to the threats of the enemy. Elijah needed rest and David needed strength.

So, David strengthened himself in the Lord.  What did that look like for him? I can only speculate, but I think he had to remember that God has assured him of a future that would not end in that moment.  The prophet had declared he would be king.  He was not king yet, so his time was not yet up.  He also must have remembered the victories God had given him before, that seemed impossible…the lion, the bear, the Philistine champion Goliath, the impossible escapes from the hand of Saul, and so on. 

There will be times for all of us that we need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord because Satan will show up when our strength is depleted.  In those moments, when life feels impossible to face, we need to go to God.  We need to remember what he has done for us in the past, remember prophetic words we have received, and refresh ourselves in his promises in the Word and claim them by faith.  We need to call on spiritual family to stand with us and encourage us.  Sometimes we need to rest.  And most importantly, we need to hear from God. 

When Elijah heard Jezebel’s threat, he ran away (1 Kings 19).  God did not rebuke him for his lack of faith but sent angels to minister to him as he hid.  God knows our weakness but works to renew us not to rebuke us.  David sought out the priest and a fresh word from God.  God assured him that if he pursued the Amalekites, God would give him victory. He and his men took strength and encouragement from that word, pursued the Amalekites, and rescued all their wives and children without a single loss.

When Satan shows up, sometimes we need rest and sometimes we need to take action, but both come from pressing into the Lord, hearing his voice, remembering his faithfulness in the past, and standing on a prophetic word he has given us. It comes from finding people of faith who will encourage us so we can borrow a “cup of faith” from them.

Let me encourage you.  When the enemy shows up on your worst day and adds one more thing to your crisis, strengthen yourself in the Lord.  If you are wise, you will already have journaled, underlined, highlighted, and written out your prophetic words to stand on as you lean into the Lord.  We are always encouraged to have a plan when crisis comes…a fire, a blizzard, a tornado, etc. We are told to store up supplies to see us through the emergency…food, blankets, a flashlight, a first aid kit. 

Perhaps, we should do so spiritually.  We should already have in place the very things we will need when trouble comes our way. We will already have a plan of what to remember, his promises to stand on, and people of faith we can call.  God will be there for us to furnish rest or strength to take action.  But, we will need to seek him rather than feeling abandoned by him. That is the promise of scripture.

Not too long ago, I received an email from a mother that speaks to a lot of issues many parents are facing in our culture.  I thought I would share a response that might be helpful to those reading this blog or someone they know. She wrote…

Pastor Tom….My son is a young teenager, and he’s dealing with a lot of things. He’s been depressed, had more than one suicide attempts, he’s doing drugs, he’s very angry. He’s seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist and they’re throwing around some diagnoses that don’t seem to be affective or on target. I believe the issue is 100% spiritual warfare, demonic oppression… all that stuff. He was telling me that at one point not too long ago he had made a decision to actually follow Satan. I know that that can bring a lot of things spiritually into his life. He isn’t able to say, Jesus is Lord and Savior even though in the past, he’s told me that was the case. He says when he reads the Bible, he just gets angry and it makes him want to do things like cutting and doing self-destructive things. I definitely believe that mental illness is real, but I also believe that there’s a spiritual component here. My question is because, he’s not really willing to participate in any kind of like deliverance, how do I do that for my kid?

First, let me say that we have had many parents over the years express concerns that their children were being demonized and wondered what to so since the children were too young to make their own declarations or were unwilling to do so.  Demonization of children is not new.  

Mark tells us, “A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” So, they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (Mark 9:17-23). 

Demons can enter children several ways.  They may come in through bloodlines from ancestors who have lived and died in sin without repentance.  This seems to be especially true when those ancestors were involved in sexual immorality, witchcraft and false worship, violence and severe trauma.  We see depression, anger, self-destructive behaviors including suicide attempts, etc. that often have come down through bloodlines. “Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children down to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 20:5).

They can also enter older children and especially teens when they have participated in witchcraft…psychic readings, video games with elements of witchcraft, pornography, seances at sleepovers, Ouija boards, etc. or when they have been exposed to their own trauma through abuse, the death of a parent or sibling, violence, or even scary movies. It is not uncommon that friends have introduced them to these things.

If you suspect or know that your child is under the influence of demons, here are a few responses to that situation.

As the parent, you have spiritual authority over your children.  Therefore, you can command demons to leave without your child having to make the declarations for themselves.  You can do so as they sleep which is best for small children. Authority does not have to be loud.  It simply needs to be firm and spoken by someone who knows they have authority.

You can do so with your older children and teens if they are open to it. You can do so in your teens room when they are not present, if that is necessary.  Be sure to anoint their rooms with oil and command any spirits in the room to leave and never return. 

Take an inventory of your child’s room and iphone or ipad.  Are there any objects, games, videos, magazines, music, posters, websites, etc., that glorify violence, witchcraft, new age activities, eastern religions, and so forth? These invite demonic spirits into your child’s space and, perhaps, into your child.  Take note of gifts that may have come from friends or family members who dabble in the occult or new age activities.  Sometimes demons come attached to objects that have been prayed over or blessed by those who serve false gods.  If you find them, you may need to remove them from the house.

If you are aware of generational sin that may have come through you to your child, you must acknowledge the sins of your ancestors, repent of the sin on behalf of your bloodline, and renounce them before commanding any spirits to leave. Always tell them to leave immediately and never return. 

If a child or teen has entered into some promise or covenant with Satan or some spirit other than the Holy Spirit, that covenant needs to be nullified. That covenant will give the enemy entrance to your child as long as it is allowed. However, in the same way that a twelve-year-old cannot legally enter into a contract without your involvement, that child cannot enter into a covenant with Satan without your involvement.  Therefore, by your authority as a parent and as a follower of Jesus, you can renounce the covenant and nullify it by the authority of Jesus and your authority as a parent.

Here is a sample declaration of how you might break any covenants made by your child with the enemy either because they were upset, angry or thought they were simply playing games. 

On behalf of my child, over whom God has given me spiritual authority, and in the name of Jesus, I declare that Elohim – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is the only true and living God and I totally surrender myself and my child to his Lordship. I renounce Satan and all the works of Satan.  I renounce all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God and the evil powers of this world that corrupt and destroy those God has created. I repent of and renounce all sinful desires that draw me and my child away from God. In the name of Jesus, I repent of and renounce any promises, covenants, agreements, dedications, or allegiances with Satan that were established by my child or spoken over my child by someone else. 

I plead the blood of Jesus over my bloodline and my child for forgiveness and repent of and renounce any agreements with Satan on his/her behalf. In the name of Jesus and by his authority, I declare all promises, covenants, agreements, dedications, and allegiances nullified and made void by the all-encompassing authority of Jesus Christ. By the authority of Christ and the sword of the Spirit, I sever myself and my child from all such covenants, agreements, or dedications and declare he/she is set free to serve Jesus alone.

In the name of Jesus, I also break and remove any and every seal of Satan that may have been established over him and declare that he is set free from these seals by the blood of Christ and the sword of the Spirit.  Amen.

You will need to make this declaration before you command any spirits of witchcraft to leave.  You may have to do all this several times over a period of days to break these demonic strongholds.   

Ultimately, our children need to know the dangers of crossing into enemy territory in the spiritual realm, but need to know more the power and authority that Jesus wields on behalf of his people. Children rarely can measure the consequences of their actions and will do and say and participate in things that seem fun or risky simply for the excitement or novelty.  That is part of immaturity, but we still need to teach and model spiritual awareness and the power and love of Jesus Christ in our lives.  From their earliest years they simply need to know…Jesus good.  Satan bad. 

In Matthew 4:1, we find Jesus being led into the wilderness immediately after being baptized by John and immediately after the Holy Spirit had descended on him. Mark tells us he was immediately sent into the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by Satan (Mk 1:12).  The word translated sent, more often means driven or forcibly led. What we see is Jesus being strongly compelled by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to face Satan during the entire forty days.  The final temptations are recorded by Matthew, but the language suggests that Satan was whispering all along the way.  

In the same way that Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had received power from the Holy Spirit before they began to preach the gospel, it is apparent that Jesus could not have withstood the temptations of the devil without the Holy Spirit.  Neither can we.  The more we allow the Holy Spirit to manifest himself in us, the more we can withstand temptation.  I’m not speaking so much here about spiritual gifts but spiritual maturity. In the past few years, we have seen numerous Christian leaders fall to temptation. They were abounding in spiritual gifts, or at least in natural talent, but had a shortfall in character.  Paul tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but as we do, we must desire even more, the character of Christ to be formed in us.  The temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness were preparing him to carry the weight of his ministry and his ultimate sacrifice.

Most of us want to achieve our goals in life without paying a great price for it.  That is very human.  In Matthew 4, Satan saved that temptation for his finale.  Matthew tells us, “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him” (Mt. 4:7-11).

Ultimately, Jesus will rule over all the nations of the world.  Satan was offering him that position without the cross – worldwide rule without the suffering.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are – yet without sinning (Heb. 4:5).  This final temptation must have appealed greatly to his flesh.  Thankfully for all of us, he resisted.  In part, he was able to do so because he had already said no to temptation countless times in his forty days in the wilderness.  Each time he said “No,” he was strengthened in his spirit.

Here is the thing.  If we are given a crown without a cross, we will eventually fail.  That crown might be leading a large church, leading a nationally known ministry, gaining the coveted promotion at work, the marriage you have desired for years, recognition in the sports or academic world, winning the lottery, etc.  Satan knows our vulnerabilities and he will exploit them whenever possible.  

The ultimate example of this principle is Saul and David.  Saul was anointed one day and became King the next.  He was thrust into a position of power and significance he was not ready to carry.  His rule was marked by insecurity, manipulation, the fear of man, and even attempted murder.  David was anointed one day but was not given the crown for years as he ran from Saul, led men in the wilderness, learned to desperately depend on God, and even learned to control his temper.  Saul was given power and success without his heart being tried and his character developed.  His reign ended in catastrophe.  David assumed the crown after years of his heart being tested and is remembered as Israel’s greatest king…even with a serious moral failure in his life.  Men with character can recover even from failures, while those without character will be crushed.  Saul became an insecure and conniving man.  David became a humble man.

The lesson is not to despise the waiting, but trust that God is developing you to steward the fulfillment of your dreams well…if they are godly dreams.   The warning signs of men being given positions and recognition beyond their character is all around us…sports stars, politicians, celebrities, lottery winners, preachers, etc. whose lives are marked with addiction, a string of broken marriages, fraud, insider trading, moral failures, etc.  

When we have a dream or desire that would carry with it notoriety, huge financial success, power, influence, and so forth, we must first ask the Lord if that dream or desire is from him.  It may be a dream planted by the enemy for your destruction.  If you genuinely sense it is from God, next check your motives for pursuing the dream.  Is it obedience, bringing glory to God, extending the kingdom, or for personal significance?  Be honest with yourself! If it is about your personal significance, ask the Lord to change your heart.  If it is all about you, he cannot give you that desire since he loves you.  It would be to your detriment.  If the dream keeps illuding you, be open to the possibility that God is preparing you to fulfill that desire through the waiting.  Remember, his time table rarely matches ours.  If you can accept the waiting and still work with integrity, faithfulness, and thanksgiving, then you will be ready for the desire or the dream to given to you.  God will only give us more when we have been faithful with what we already have (Mt. 25:21).

Too many times in the waiting, we begin to resent the people around us, manipulate situations to get what we want, become critical of those who have what we want or who we think are standing in our way. We begin to doubt God’s care for us and maybe become angry with God because he hasn’t given us what we wanted. These feelings are natural, but need to be reined in and adjusted to be in alignment with God’s word and his promises for you. That constant testing and realignment is what develops our spiritual maturity and prepares us to steward well what we believe God wants for us. 

Paul, as a Pharisee, was once driven by selfish ambition and a desire for recognition. But after meeting Jesus, his heart was changed.  He said, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11-13. 

Paul found contentment because he had learned to see the hand of God in whatever circumstance he was in.  He believed God was using that circumstance to either develop his heart or to bear fruit in a difficult situation by demonstrating Jesus to those who were watching his life.  May we do the same when our life is not yet reflecting the dreams and desires of our hearts.

As Jesus stood before Pilot on Friday morning around 33 A.D., Pilot already knew that the charges brought against Jesus were bogus.  Matthew tells us, “For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him” (Mt. 27:18). The word translated as self-interest in the NIV means envy or jealousy. The gospels are clear that the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the elders felt that Jesus and his popularity threatened their positions as well as invited the Romans to oppress their little nation even more.

In his effort to persuade the crowd and Jewish leaders to release Jesus, Pilot offered to fulfill a Passover tradition of releasing a prisoner. As Israel had been released from bondage in Egypt, Rome would release another Jew from bondage as an acknowledgment of their great feast day.  So, he brought our Barabbas. Mark tells us, “A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising^” (Mk. 15:7).  All accounts of this man paint him as a thief, a murderer, and an insurrectionist.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Pilot asks the crowd, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah (Mt. 27:17)? It is ironic that both are named Jesus.  It is even more ironic that Barabbas literally means “son of Abba” or “son of a father.” This was no coincidence because God, who orchestrated everything about his Son’s crucifixion, undoubtedly orchestrated this as well.  One is Jesus, the son of an earthly abba, while the other is Jesus the Son of the heavenly Abba. 

In this very moment, a vivid snapshot of the gospel appears.  The guilty goes free while the innocent takes his place.  One who deserves to die is released, while one who is sinless is condemned to death. The man who is the son of a sinful father walks away while the Son of the Heavenly Father is nailed to a cross. That is the crux of the gospel. The crowd witnessed the eternal gospel that day without understanding what they were seeing, yet it was presented all the same.   Every Easter season it is presented to the crowds, but many never understand. However, God is faithful to present it all the same.

Another question remains, however.  What happened to Barabbas after his release?  The gospels do not say and history leaves no record.  Perhaps. that is God’s intent.  We don’t know the end of the story of this man. Did he continue in his sin and ignore God’s Passover deliverance for him or did he follow the man who took is place and was raised from the dead three days later?  We each must make that choice.

Today is called Good Friday because good came out of it.  Without his death there would have been no atoning sacrifice. Without his death, there would have been no resurrection.  Perhaps, it should also be known as Gospel Friday as each of us see the choice and choose again to follow or ignore the man who took our place.  

This may seem like a strange question, but many, many believers are taught that God does not work outside the natural order of things.  Usually, these denominations teach that God did work in miraculous ways in “Bible days,” but no longer does so.  If you have not been part of one these mainline denominations, this idea may seem strange to you because the natural reading of scripture would never leave you thinking that the God who worked miracles from Genesis to Revelation would suddenly stop intervening in the affairs of men in supernatural ways.  However, these churches still declare that belief in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and the miraculous works of God is heresy.

The argument goes that miracles were performed, especially in the New Testament, to prove that Jesus was the Son of God, and once the record of all these miracles was written in scripture, the evidence was sufficient and, therefore, no more miracles were required nor necessary.   The roots of this view probably go back to the Renaissance when men began to celebrate the art and science produced by man.  During this period and later, men began to worship their abilities and began to believe that man and his intellect could cure all the ills of the world. The “scientific method” became the gospel for many and anything not subject to man and his reason was considered superstition.  Miracles, which were not subject to the new religion of science, fell out of favor, even among many theologians. 

Even Martin Luther espoused a view that true miracles ceased when the age of the apostles expired.  He taught that men heard from God only through the written Word and not apart from it.  He allowed for healing as a “possible” response to prayer, but thought it was rare.  Certainly, there were no gifts of healing operating. Some historians believe that much of his theology was a response to abuses of “miracles” and “revelation” by the Catholic Church from which he was separating himself.  There were undoubtedly such abuses but the question arises, “Should we discard the power and intervention of God because some abuse the idea?”

In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul discusses extensively their abuse of spiritual gifts…especially tongues and prophecy. However, he does not forbid the practice of these gifts, but rather teaches them how to use them correctly – in a way that builds up the church rather than the individual.  Rather than forbidding the exercise of these gifts, he commands everyone to eagerly desire spiritual gifts.

The view that God no longer intervenes in our lives through miracles also spawned the view that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit ceased as well when the apostles died. This view strips the church of her power against the forces of darkness. The argument goes that Jesus ministered in miraculous ways to prove he was the Son of God and the apostles ministered in miraculous ways to prove they were his true representative and that their writings in the New Testament were inspired.  Again…once there was sufficient written evidence, miracles and supernatural gifts were no longer needed for the gospel and faded away.

However, many non-apostles did mighty works through the power of the Spirit – Phillip (Acts 8:6-7) and Stephen (Acts 6:8), as examples. In addition, some, who were not apostles, such as Luke, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews,  wrote much of the New Testament.  Jesus declared, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn. 14:12-13). He didn’t say his apostles would do what he had been doing, but anyone who believes.  He also did not assign a shelf-life to that promise but to whoever believes, whenever they believe. God also clearly gave supernatural gifts to the church – apart from the apostles.  He gave gifts of healing, gifts of miracles, tongues, prophecy, interpretation. discerning of spirits, etc. to ordinary believers to build up the church (See 1 Cor. 12-14).

One of the great deceptions by the enemy is the theology that God no longer intervenes in miraculous ways and these spiritual gifts no longer function.  One of the side effects of this theology is an unspoken belief that the supernatural altogether is superstition. Demons no longer afflict men and angels don’t show up to fight for God’s people.  That belief leaves God’s people powerless in the face of an unseen enemy that is still afflicting them, but goes undetected. Paul clearly says in Ephesians 6 our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against forces of evil in heavenly realms and he points us to divine weapons in 2 Corinthians 10. We cannot defend ourselves from spiritual attacks without spiritual power from spiritual weapons…gifts of the Spirit that are manifestations of God’s power and authority.

Over the years, I have spoken with several people who were involved in witchcraft because when they had gone to the church, the church had no solution for their struggles…no power.  They found power in witchcraft. They discovered it was destructive power, but there was power all the same.  Paul declared, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20). If there is no power expressed, then the kingdom is not expressed. You would be surprised how many people think Satan is more powerful than God, because this non-miraculous theology has stripped the church of the expression of God’s greatness and power over the enemy.

Several years ago, I counseled with a woman over a period of months who had been subjected to Satanic ritual abuse as a small girl.  During the abuse, she cried out to God to save her but nothing happened.  She had battled severe depression as an adult and, as an adult who still believed in Jesus, she was plagued by the belief that Satan was more powerful than God because she had not been rescued when she was five.  One day, in a period of desperation as she was slipping back into her depression, she was willing to “risk” deliverance.  In the name of Jesus, she was delivered from several tormenting spirits.  For the first time, she was able to believe Jesus was more powerful than Satan and it changed her life.  She knew what the Bible said, but needed to experience that truth before being set free. God’s people and the world still need miracles and the manifest power of the Spirit.

Interestingly, the very definition of a miracle is God intervening in the natural order of things to alter what would have happened without his touch.  Isn’t that why any of us pray?  Why would we ask God to make sure something would happen that would happen anyway without his intervention?  Even if we pray for God to bless the hands of the surgeon, we are asking him to prevent something that might happen in the natural without his intervention.  We are asking him to intervene to prevent a mistake.  By definition we are asking for a miracle. So if we can ask God for that, why not for greater miracles as well. Here’s the rub.  If we only pray for the ordinary, we will only see the ordinary and so confirm our belief thar God acts only in ordinary ways.  But how does that glorify him?  How does that demonstrate his power over the enemy? How does that give his church victory over the schemes and attacks of the devil? 

Every time people doubted the possibility of a miracle, Jesus scolded them as people of little faith.  What would he say to us now and those that no longer believe in the supernatural intervention of God on behalf of his people and this world? It seems to me, there has never been a time when we needed his miracles more than now. Susan and I just spent a weekend with a Free Indeed Ministry in McKinney, Texas.  There we saw healing, deliverance from demons, and lives transformed by the power of Jesus. Without a belief in that power for today those people would still be in the grip of fear, addictions, sexual sin, depression and witchcraft.  But Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He still wants to destroy the works of the devil through his church and miracles should still be the normal expectation in the body of Christ. 

The Word of God trumpets that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8). Whatever Jesus healed, cast out, or overcame were works that the enemy had constructed on the earth through the sin of man.  In the opening salvo of Christ’s war on the devil, he announced that he had come to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set captives free (Luke 4).  He then proceeded to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, heal every kind of sickness and physical condition, cast our demons, raise the dead, and break the power of sin over countless lives.

However, since then, some Christian leaders a decided that the very things Jesus opposed on the earth did not come from Satan, but from God himself.   Somewhere along the line, theologians decided that since God is sovereign, everything that happens on this planet is his will and has been ordained by heaven.  That kind of theology makes God the author of rape, abortion, famine, war, cancer, birth defects, and crib death. That kind of theology makes God a heartless manipulator of people and circumstances.  But John definitively says that God is love. 

The truth is that there are countless things that happen on this planet that do not reflect the heart or the will of God for his people.  For instance, in his first letter to Timothy, Paul says, “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim.2: 4) Paul clearly states that God’s desire is for every soul to be saved.  Scripture also clearly says that not all will be saved. In the matter of the world’s salvation, God’s desire will not be completely fulfilled.

Even, when the persistent acts and sins of men demand God’s righteous judgment, that is not what God rejoices to do.  In the book of Ezekiel, God says, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” declares the sovereign Lord.  “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live” (Ezek. 18:23)?  He also says, “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.” (Ezek.22: 30). Sometimes, disaster comes because man leaves God no choice.  Like parents exercising tough love toward a rebellious child, God sometimes brings discipline or judgment.  But it is not his pleasure to do so. 

The world is clearly full of tragedy.  In his sovereignty, God gave man free will and in doing so set limitations on himself in terms of how he would intercede in the affairs of men.  When mankind chooses violence over peace, adultery over faithfulness, abortion over parenthood, bitterness over forgiveness, deception over truth, and rebellion over obedience – bad things happen.  If I give you free will, the risk is that you can use that will to do evil and people are wounded in ways that were never in the heart of God for his people. When men act in such ways, they open themselves and their families up to the work of Satan who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

However, we understand God and his heart for us, the clearest demonstration of his heart is found in Jesus. Jesus declared in John 14:9 that whoever has seen him (Jesus), has seen the Father.  Whatever Jesus did on the earth is an accurate reflection of the heart of God.  The heart of God, like the heart of God’s Son, is to heal, bless, set free, and eventually abolish death altogether. Nowhere do we ever see Jesus imparting illness, taking life, or releasing misery.

When we blame God for the tragedies, the pain, the sorrows of life, we misjudge his character and his heart for us and undermine faith. When we believe those things are from God, we simply resign ourselves to fate.  That misconception is a great tool of the enemy to alienate people from a God who loves them and to choke off our faith when we pray.  If we ever believe that God’s heart for his children is that they be raped, abused, murdered, ravaged by cancer, stuck in crippling poverty, or die tragically then how will we pray against those things?  How will be believe that God is sitting on the edge of his throne waiting to arise and set his children free from the hate-filled works of the devil?  And yet, that is where he is.

The good news is that disease, disabilities, shattered emotions, broken families and all the rest of Satan’s work is not the heart of God for his people. Isaiah clearly stated that Messiah would come to preach good news,  heal broken hearts, and set captives free (Isa. 61).  Jesus came to begin dismantling those works in individual lives and then in society as a whole.  The church has been commissioned to do what Jesus did and to continue to destroy those works with the love of God and the power of heaven. 

God longs for us to call on him in faith to push back the borders of darkness through us.  He longs to display his power to heal, mend, and set free through us, just as he did through Jesus. There will be times when we may not see our prayers answered and we will not understand the outcomes. We will have to be content to live with mysteries. But we can only face those mysteries well, when we stand on a foundation of being convinced of God’s goodness. Whenever we have it in our hearts to do the works that Jesus did, we can rest assured that heaven is ready to join us in the battle.  Be bold today.  Know that God is on your side when you push back in faith against the kingdom of darkness. You may ask the impossible, when you know who he is.

Have you every noticed how quickly trash accumulates around the house? My wife and I are always amazed at how much trash just the two of us can produce in a week’s time. Maybe we are just trashy folks, but the dumpsters in our neighborhood suggest we are not alone. Spiritual trash can accumulate as well, but since it is invisible, we are much less likely to notice. However, the enemy notices.

In the book of Revelation, Satan is identified as, “the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God, day and night” (Rev. 12:10). In his book, Operating in the Courts of Heaven, Robert Henderson makes his case that Satan relentlessly brings accusations against the people of God in the courts of heaven, seeking a legal right to afflict them. The scene in the first chapter of Job is representative of that activity.

In the Book of Job, God set limits on how seriously Satan could afflict Job. I think he does the same with us, depending on where we are in relationship to him. In Deuteronomy 28, God established the precedent that if His people were careful to keep all of his commands, then blessings would be the consequence of their obedience. if, however, they were not careful and rebelled against God, dire curses would be the consequence.

Paul echoed that same principle when he wrote, ^” Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8).

It seems that most often, a persistent refusal to confess and repent of sin in our lives will eventually cause God to begin to remove his hand of protection from us or a nation. Satan’s complaint to God about Job was that God had established a hedge of protection around him that Satan could not penetrate…until he got permission from God. When we look at the Old Testament, we see how God’s discipline (consequences of sin), played out. God would allow bad things to happen to Israel that manifested as partial judgments…three years of drought, failed crops, illness, minor defeats by the enemy, etc.. which were intended to call Israel back to God. If they persisted in their sin, the consequences grew, until finally disaster overwhelmed them.

It was as if the more their sin accumulated, the greater Satan’s legal rights increased to afflict God’s people. The remedy was always true repentance and seeking God once more. When Israel repented, renounced their ways, and turned back to obedience, God’s blessings returned. Godly sorrow, confession, and repentance revoked Satan’s legal right to afflict God’s people. It is the same today.

Satan is always looking for ways to accuse us so that he might gain some legal right to afflict or oppress us. The cure is genuine repentance followed by renewed obedience. Sometimes we fail to repent because Satan convinces us that what we are doing is hidden from God or is approved by God or that we somehow have gained an exemption from his discipline…when, in fact, he is just being patient and merciful toward us. The other hiccup in the process is when we are simply unaware of the sin in our lives.

It is amazing how we so often fail to identify pride , unbelief, bigotry, a judgmental spirit, or unforgiveness in our own lives. As Jesus said, we are quick to identify the splinter in someone else’s eye, but fail to see the plank in our own eye. We may also fail to identify sin because we compare ourselves to people around us and feel righteous, rather than comparing ourselves to God’s righteousness. Sometimes, a certain sin has been part of our lives for so long, it seems normal and, therefore, acceptable. David was wise when he prayed, “Search me, 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). Sometimes, we need someone else to make us aware of a sin that is actually making us vulnerable to the enemy.

The other hiccup in this process is that we may be experiencing the consequence of unrepented sin in our family line. Exodus 20:5-6 states, ” for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,  but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Frequently, in scripture, you will find men who are seeking God for themselves or the nation, confessing and repenting for the sins of their fathers on behalf of their bloodlines. We may need to become more acquainted with family history to know how to pray about generational sins, or we may need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal what may be giving Satan a right to afflict us from the sins of our fathers.

As followers of Jesus, we may feel that all of our sin and the sins of our fathers are automatically covered by the blood of Christ. When we are talking about salvation that is absolutely true. However, when talking about reaping and sowing in this life, we may face affliction or oppression, because we have not taken out the trash on a regular basis. After David’s sin with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet confronted him. David repented and Nathan declared he was forgiven. In other words, he was reconciled to God after his sin, bur he was also told he would have to walk through some of the consequences of his actions in this life. His salvation was not the issue, but the principle of sowing and reaping still applied.

In John 1:9, John is writing to believers, but he says, “If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It is not as though the blood of Christ does not atone for our sin until we have confessed each and every one, but confession (with repentance) keeps the enemy from gaining access to us in the courts of heaven and keeps our relationship with the Father unhindered. That should be a regular practice in the prayer life of every believer.

Let me encourage you, to ask the Spirit and the people who know you best to inform you if they see any patterns of sin displayed in your life or if they know of any generational sin you need to submit to the cross. Taking the trash out on a regular basis keeps rot, stink, and critters from invading your home. That is true with spiritual trash as well. I am not advocating an obsession about our sin, but a standing invitation for the Holy Spirit or those we trust to make us aware, so the enemy can gain no legal right to come after us. Blessings in Him.

I’m sure we all have certain passages marked in our Bibles that the Holy Spirit has highlighted for us.  Sometimes I mark them, then forget them, but when I’m reading back through the Bible, I run across them again and remember why I  put brackets around the text. One of those is in Proverbs.

“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Prov. 28:13).

John said a similar thing in his first letter.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).

One of the most frequent points of access Satan has in a believer’s life is unconfessed, unrepented sin.  One of the most persistent themes in scripture is God calling Israel to repent and come back to him so that he might bless them again.  A sample is found in Joel 2 after another extended period of rebellion by God’s chosen people.  These seasons of rebellion lasted for years.  They were filled with national idolatry, blatant sexual immorality, injustice for the poor, disrespect for the God of Israel, children offered in the fires of Molech, and indifference for the temple of God.

In the Book of Joel, we see a final warning of coming devastation if Israel does not acknowledge their sin and repent. He warns them of a natural disaster that is already on the way…swarms of locust that will dwarf the plague that fell on Egypt.  When this “army” comes, it will devastate every living plant in the nation.  Nothing will remain.  Trees will be stripped down to their bark.  All grains, grass, olive trees, vineyards, and vegetables will be devoured by these swarms.  There will be no grass or grain to feed the animals, no grain for bread, no grapes for wine, no olives for olive oil, no fruit from the trees.  There will be famine and all the suffering that accompanies that curse.  Yet in the midst of God’s warning and admonition to his people, He says…

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God” (Joel 2:12-14)

In another place, Ezekiel records the words of God when he says, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezek. 18:23).

Although God is clearly revealed as a forgiving and compassionate God, there still remains a strong propensity in the nature of man, even in believers, to conceal our sin and not confess. 

Sometimes, we are ignorant of our sin…we didn’t know it was wrong.  Many believers have not been discipled well or taught the whole counsel of God.  When they discover that they are sinning, they are genuinely surprised.  For instance, an amazing number of young single Christians in America come to church and share, without hesitation, the fact they are living together.  They are living out a cultural norm and are often shocked to find that God does not approve.  

The rest of us may not want to give up something in our lives…maybe alcohol we can’t control, power, control, manipulation, sexual sin we are keeping secret, anger that makes us feel powerful, etc.  We rationalize the sin or minimize it as something that is not “that bad.”  Sometimes we keep it secret because we fear the fallout, if others knew.  Adultery is often hidden for years or always.  Pornography is often a secret sin that can go on for decades. 

Satan convinces us that we can’t help it, therefore, God should not hold us accountable.  He convinces us that “everyone does it,” so we should get a pass on the issue.  He also convinces us that we participated, but someone else is actually to blame so God will overlook our failures. So…the sin goes unacknowledged, unconfessed and unrepented.   But God says, that person will not prosper in the things that truly matter…body, soul, spirit, and relationships.  Those will all suffer when sin is hidden, excused, minimized or denied.

David and Saul may be the greatest examples of this dynamic.  Saul was disobedient on several significant occasions, but, when confronted, always found a way to blame others, declare he had obeyed God when his obedience was only partial, or claim he couldn’t help it.   Eventually, he lost his kingdom, his life and the lives of his sons, and is remembered as a failed king. 

Then there was David.  He did things even Saul didn’t do…adultery, murder, and abusing his power to cover up the sin.  Yet in Psalm 51, we find David openly confessing his sin.  He doesn’t deny it, blame others for it, minimize it, or claim he couldn’t help himself.  He never tried to bargain with God or talk about all the good things he had done that should get him a “get-out-of- jail-free card for this one “incident.”

True, David hid the sin for a number of months out of shame and out of fear regarding the fallout if people knew the truth.  But the Spirit of God through,, the prophet Nathan, brought him to a place of confession and repentance. Trusting in the character of God, he began the Psalm, “Have mercy on me O God according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion.”  The moment David showed godly sorrow and confessed his sin, it was forgiven.  There would be consequences in the natural realm for David’s sin, but his relationship with God was immediately restored and God promised to walk with him through the fires of the fallout.  Despite, his moral failure, David is still remembered as the greatest king of Israel and “a man after God’s own heart.”   Part of his greatness was in owning his failures, declaring that God’s standards were righteous, and trusting in the heart of a good, good Father.

When we fail to acknowledge our sin, confess, and repent, we reveal some things about our heart.  Either we don’t love God, because if we love him we obey him, or we believe he is unfair and unreasonable in his standards.  Perhaps, we hide or excuse our sin because we believe he is a harsh and angry God just waiting to punish and abuse us. Perhaps, we believe we are saved by our own righteousness rather than by grace and, therefore, have to deny our sin while we eagerly point to the sins of others, to maintain our standing.  But all of those reasons and that view of God are misplaced.  Satan will establish strongholds through our unbelief or our denial of our sin.  If we think we are hiding our sin from God because we have not acknowledged it, we are also deceived because God knows everything,

Yet God’s heart is always ready to forgive and receive when we return with godly sorrow taking full responsibility for our choices.  The story of the Prodigal Son is the embodiment of our Father’s heart (Luke 15). So…you may want to take an inventory of your life.  Is there a sin you have denied, excused, minimized or hidden that you have not owned or confessed?  If so, Satan has every right to afflict you and those you love. 

The key to prospering in the things that matter, is to lay our sins, our weaknesses and our failings at the foot of the cross, believing that God is a good, good Father just waiting for us to return and be restored.  Besides, your sin will not stay hidden forever.  Either God will reveal it to cleanse you or Satan will reveal it to destroy you. It is best to take it to the Father right away.