Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Matthew 7:1-2

You know the phrase. You hear it from friends or acquaintances in the work place…maybe even at church. It usually is uttered by someone whose life is an ongoing train wreck of bad decisions and consequences. He or she has just made another one and is telling you not to speak into their life unless it is a word of total approval. If it is someone at church, they like to quote scripture as a rebuke to you even thinking of disapproving of their decisions.

The verse above comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Of course, we call it by that name, he didn’t.  That verse and other’s like it have been misused on many occasions to protest any admonition or rebuke levied against an individual’s sin or misbehavior.  The current cultural gist of the phrase means that I don’t think anyone should hold me accountable for any of my bad, hurtful, destructive, or just plain stupid behaviors.  

If “judging,” in the sense that Jesus used it, meant calling another person to repentance or a course correction, then Jesus himself sinned on numerous occasions as well as most of the other writers of the New Testament.  Jesus pointed out the sins of the Pharisees on numerous occasions. He also encouraged the “adulterous woman” of John 8 to “go and leave your life of sin. ” He warned the paralytic he healed at the pool of Bethesda to stop sinning or something worse would happen to him. In addition, the writers of the New Testament often pointed out sins in the churches to whom they were writing as they called them to repentance and, on occasion, even called out people by name. From time to time they even ordered church discipline to be administered to those who persisted in sin.

So, if the “judging” Jesus warned about is not a prohibition against pointing out the sins of others, what is it ?  It’s an important question and one that needs to be seriously considered in the area of spiritual freedom and spiritual warfare.  

As in most spiritual issues, the key seems to be the condition of the heart and our motives for “judging,” that makes the act either a sin or a righteous act on our part. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, I believe the “judging” is a matter of condemnation of another person from a sense of self-righteousness or moral superiority.  It is one thing to point out a behavior that is misaligned with God’s will out of concern for the sinner and quite another thing to condemn the person while holding ourselves up as models of virtue.

The key is that righteous “judgment” is out of concern for a person’s salvation and the spiritual health of the body of Christ.  There is no self-righteous component in which church leaders are feeling morally superior to the person caught in sin.  Love is motivating the discipline in the same way that love motivates a parent to discipline a rebellious child. The goal of proper judgment is always redemption motivated by love.

The judgment that Jesus warns us about is a personal judgment based on a feeling of superiority or a desire to wound or demean another person. We tend to leap past the behavior and label another person as if we know his thoughts, his  heart, his motives, and his history.  Instead of saying that a young woman is involved in sexual immorality, we simply label her as a slut…verbally or in our own minds. At that point, we have made her “less than” us, although we undoubtedly have another variety of sin in our own life that we justify or don’t recognize.  That judgment exalts us and diminishes the other person.  We don’t feel concern, but rather contempt. We don’t love, but reject.  We judge the person’s worth and value, rather than letting God be the judge. Here is the danger.  When we judge with that heart, we align ourselves with Satan who is the chief accuser of the brethren.

2020 has been a miserable year. People are stressed, discouraged and afraid. In the wake of that, people make bad decisions and calls for marriage counseling have increased. For me, the most difficult thing in marriage counseling is to deal with judgment.  Once a spouse has judged his or her partner as selfish, hateful, perverse, manipulative, etc., it is difficult for that person to see their spouse in any other light.  Even when that spouse is trying to change, the one who has made a judgment will not see the change or credit the effort.  Eventually, the “judged” spouse will give up trying to be different because they sense that whatever they do will never be enough. The spouse who has made the judgment will always feel superior to the other and their disdain or disrespect will poison the relationship.  Believe me, Satan will work hard to justify and maintain that judgment in the mind of the spouse who has made it. You can see how damaging this kind of judgment can be.

Secondly, Jesus says that “with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.”  When we judge others with a heart of moral superiority we have entered into the realm of pride and arrogance, which opens us up to the enemy.  That kind of judgment is a form of “unforgiveness” in which we have condemned another and refuse to let go of our condemning attitude. We have defined another person without mercy or forgiveness.  When we judge another, in this context, we sin and the unrepented sin is an open door to the enemy.  Not only that, but once we have cast another person in a certain light through judgment, we typically dismiss or “filter out” all evidence to the contrary. If you think about it, that seems to be the basis for racism and bigotry.

This kind of judgment, because it is sin, gives the devil a legal right to afflict us.  That is how our judgment comes back on us.  Remember…with what judgment we judge, we shall be judged. If we judge someone to be a perverse person, Satan can deal with us as a perverse person. If we judge someone to be selfish, the enemy can deal with us as a selfish person. In finding freedom, people not only need to repent of active sin and unforgiveness, but of judgments as well. In the same way that we repent of sin and renounce it, we must also repent of judgments and renounce them before we can dismiss every demon. Again, this is not a denial of sin, but a change of heart toward the sinner and any sensei of our own superiority.

Once again, identifying behavior as sinful, based on the word of God, is not the same as labeling a person and thinking less of them because of our personal agendas.  The kind of judgment the apostle Paul calls us to honors the word of God and humbly seeks restoration of a person caught in sin. The judgment Jesus warns us against, actually diminishes the chance for restoration because we feel no obligation to try to redeem that person we have labeled and often seek to have others join us in our judgment against him or her through gossip and inuendos.  

So, as we examine ourselves to see if we are in alignment with the Father’s will, we may want to scan our own hearts and history to see if judgment is opening a door for the enemy or is keeping us from reconciling a relationship.  If we are ministering freedom, to others, judgment is an area that needs to be explored.  If we have placed a judgment on ourselves, we also need to repent of that judgment and renounce it.

Suddenly, life in America has taken on a surreal feel.  Here in West Texas the coronavirus has shut down schools, churches are going online instead of meeting on Sundays, and the shelves in every grocery store are emptied. On top of that, thirty-dollar oil looms over our area like a dark cloud. It seems to be the perfect storm.

The most obvious thing in the spiritual landscape is the spirit of fear that is attached to all of this. There seems to be no rational reason for people to be hoarding everything from toilet paper to corn flakes, but here we are.  This is a time when we need to remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual principalities in heavenly realms.  I’m not saying that the coronavirus is not real and is no threat, but the fear response is way out of proportion to the reality.

Fear is an open door for the enemy.  Demonic spirits smell fear in the atmosphere like sharks smell blood in the water and are drawn to it.  As we move ahead, I want to encourage you to bind and command any spirit of fear to leave you in the powerful name of Jesus.  In fact, you may want to do that every day or several times a day if you feel it encroaching on your mind.

I also encourage you to command any spirit of infirmity to leave you and your family as well.  I encourage you to do so daily. Demonic spirits mimic real diseases and health conditions and so some will be feeling the symptoms of the coronavirus without actually having the virus.  When the spirit is driven out, the symptoms will subside soon. Again, I’m not saying that there is no actual coronavirus.  There is.  We don’t deny reality, but in the name of Jesus we can defy it and, especially, when the demonic is involved. You should engage in spiritual warfare as soon as you begin to sense any symptoms and before you head out to the ER or clinic.  If the symptoms go away, you know it was spiritual.  If not, go on to the clinic.  Medicine is a grace of God as well as supernatural healing….although God’s healing is much better.

One abiding principal of spiritual warfare is that we empower whatever or whomever we agree with.  Adam and Even came into agreement with Satan in the Garden and in doing so submitted to his authority.  Their agreement gave him power over them.  We must be careful to stay in agreement with the word of God now, rather than coming into agreement with the news or the panic on social media. If we come into agreement with fear, we will certainly create an open door for the enemy and not only will fear camp out in our living room but infirmity will likely follow.

The New Testament instructs us to fix our eyes upon Jesus and that is the key to navigating times like these.  Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and that authority includes authority over coronavirus.  As we fix our eyes on Jesus, we should invite the Holy Spirit to impart to us and his church greater measures of faith, courage, wisdom, and health for this time.

In one of his Messianic prophecies concerning Jesus, Isaiah declared, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isa.53:4-5, NRSV).

Part of our inheritance in the Lord is health…by his wounds we are healed (I Peter 2:24).  Remember that we are to pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  There is no sickness for God’s children in heaven and so sickness is not his will for his children on earth.  John reminds us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8). His primary method if evangelism was to proclaim the kingdom of God and then demonstrate it by healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.  Sickness then is a consequence of sin and a work of the devil. It is not God’s will for his children.

God’s heart has always been to defend his people from disease. He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lordyour God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you” (Ex.15:26).  The psalmist also declares,” Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.  David also wrote, “Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Ps.91:3-7).

That was God’s heart for his people even under the Old Covenant and we live under a much better covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb. Our inheritance is health and healing. Jesus demonstrated healing as a sign of the presence of the kingdom.  Peter declared that by his wounds we are healed.  James promised that if any believer is sick, he can call the elders of the church to pray over him, anoint him with oil, and the prayer of faith will bring healing.  In addition, the Holy Spirit has given gifts of healing to the church and so we know that healing is a blessing that Jesus has purchased for his people.

These are the promises we should agree with rather than aligning our hearts with fear and projections of disaster.  We should also remember that these promises are for God’s people whose lives are also in alignment with his will.  By his grace, we also have the privilege of praying for unbelievers and seeing them healed by the power and authority of Jesus as an expression of the Father’s love for them.

Let me encourage you to declare these promises over yourself and your family daily and declare that you are healthy and healed in the name of Jesus. The Israelites dabbed the blood of a Passover lamb over and around their doors as a sign of God’s protection.  The plague that had been released over Egypt did not enter a door covered by the blood.  If you are comfortable doing so, you might even dab anointing oil (olive oil) above and on the sides of your door at home as a declaration of faith that the blood of the Lamb also has power over the enemy and over disease in your house.

Passover is near and we are praying that God will sovereignly end this coronavirus crisis supernaturally and quickly in a way that points people to Jesus.  Will you join us in that prayer as we walk in faith and not fear because he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world? Blessings and health in Him.

When I became a Christian, I heard the gospel through a Cessationist church.  These were people who loved God and were ardent students of the Bible. The lens through which they interpreted the word was, however, Cessationism.  That simply means that the denomination that church aligned itself with believed that the miracles, supernatural interventions by God, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased to operate around the end of the first century when the last of the apostles died.

The idea is that God performed his miracles through Jesus solely in order to prove that he was the Son of God and the long awaited Messiah.  He performed miracles through the apostles in order to validate them as leaders of the church and to validate their writings as inspired by God. The argument continued that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were also given to validate the early church as the body of Christ and gifts such as prophecy and discernment were needed because the church did not have the complete New Testament canon until the end of the first century. However, once there was enough historical record of miracles in the life of Jesus and his apostles and once the entirety of the New Testament had been penned, the need for the supernatural acts of God and his church were fulfilled and God began to work only through natural means.  Most American mainline churches still hold this view in varying degrees.

Of course, that perspective leaves much unanswered.  For instance, why all the miracles in the Old Testament if miracles were only to validate Jesus?  If miracles were only given to validate the apostles and their writings, then why did Luke gain a place in the New Testament with a gospel and the book of Acts as well as James, the brother of Jesus, not the apostle James? Neither were apostles and we have no evidence that either of them ever performed a miracle to validate the inspiration of their writings.  Why did the church need gifts of miracles, tongues, healings, and the capacity to cast out demons if the miraculous gifts were only to make up for a lack of a complete New Testament?  Those gifts did not fill in the “yet to be written” word of God for the church. If the church needed miracles to validate that it was approved by God, why would the church not need the same validation today in the face of Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism?  In addition, if the biblical record shows that God interceded for his people with miracles from Genesis to Revelation, why would he stop intervening for his people after the Holy Spirit had been given to the church and since God himself does not change?  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

In addition to those questions, being taught that all of God’s miracles, supernatural interventions, and miraculous gifts were relegated to the past had an unintended side effect, I believe.  As I was taught to read the Bible through that lens, I also came to believe, at least at a subconscious level that we could no longer do great things for the Lord.  The Bible stories of David slaying Goliath, the Red Sea parting, supernatural strength in battle, fire falling from heaven, Philip being transported by the Holy Spirit, and so forth seemed to take on an almost mythological aura in the sense that these heroes of the past were not like you and me.  God would not work through us as he had through them.  I was reading the Word to see what God had once done, not what he would do.

The question becomes why the story of all those people and the story of all those supernatural events were even recorded if we cannot be like the people we are reading about.  God’s mighty works sound like stories that happened long, long ago in a far away galaxy.  And yet, I believe that the stories of David running toward Goliath, Joshua marching around Jericho, Elijah facing the false prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, Gideon routing the enemy of Israel with clay pots and torches, Peter being led from prison by an angel, etc. are to be emulated by us, not just remembered.

I believe that the stories were written to tell us who God’s people were and who they can be again.  They are written to tell us that we can be those people. These were real people with flaws and fears and great misunderstandings who eventually did great things through faith and the supernatural interventions of God.  If we are to be like them…if they are our role models then we cannot be like them without faith and we cannot be like them without the miraculous power of God working in our lives as it did theirs.

To take away the supernatural operation of God in our lives is to take away the possibility that we can be another David, another Gideon, another Esther, another Elijah, another Mary, another Peter, Paul, or John.  In an effort to explain why we personally haven’t seen someone heal the blind or raise the dead, we create a theology that denies the miraculous today and, at the same time, cuts the legs out from under the church and the church’s ability to “turn the world upside down” once again.

The Bible isn’t simply a history book as much as it is a book that demonstrates how men and women have encounters with God and that demonstrates what every believer’s life can look like in fellowship with God. What the Father has been willing to do in the past he is willing to do again because he does not change.  In my first church home, I was taught to run away from the miraculous because I might be deceived and led astray.  Of course we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God, but I believe that scripture actually instructs us to run toward the supernatural because we may just find God there.

I was reading through Matthew the other day and was struck with a paradox. One the one hand, Jesus seems too be telling us that we should think of ourselves as weak and lowly while in other scriptures we are told how significant we are in the kingdom of heaven.   The two thoughts sometimes seems contradictory.   However, throughout the Bible there seem to be numerous scriptures that hold us in a kind of tension between two absolute positions. For instance, we are told, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself “ (Prov. 26:4).  The very next verse says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:5). Somewhere in the middle of those two positions we are called to exercise judgment and to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in a given situation…one  situation calling for no answer and another calling for an answer to the “fool.”

I find that same kind of tension in the New Testament where we are clearly called to humble ourselves if we desire to be great in the kingdom while at the same time knowing that we have this amazing identity of status and authority in the kingdom of God.  Matthew records a moment when some of Jesus’ apostolic band asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt.18:1).  Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The word humble in the original language means lowly, weak, insignificant, or poor.  So to be great in the kingdom we must see ourselves as lowly, weak, or insignificant.  Yet, at the same time we are told over and over that we are priests, royalty, friends of the Most High King, ambassadors, co-heirs with Christ, sons and daughters of God, saints, and so forth. We seem to be called to see ourselves as insignificant, while, at the same time, knowing how significant we are.  We get the same flavor in James when he directs us to humble ourselves before God and then to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We are to humble ourselves before God but we are to have a very different bearing when we face the devil.

So do we see ourselves as insignificant or highly significant?  Do we see ourselves as weak or strong enough to send the devil to flight? Do we see ourselves as lowly or highly favored and established in heaven?  The answer seems to be “yes” to all of that.  The key seems to be in knowing that our significance, strength, and standing in heaven has all come to us as a gift, rather than as something we possess apart from Christ.

Our humility comes from knowing that apart from Christ we are weak, insignificant, powerless and lost.  He has given us value, significance and position but on the basis of his inherent greatness not ours.  We walk in strength, authority and confidence because it is his strength and authority operating in us.  To feel less than we are in Christ is to take away from what he has done and who he is, but at the same time we walk in humility knowing that all we have has come from him.

Paul put it this way,  “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Knowing that we have no strength, power, authority, or glory of our own allows Christ’s glory to shine through us.  We actually are not self-confident but Christ-confident so that we can walk both in humility and glory at the same time.

Jesus modeled the tension between these truths as he walked the earth knowing he was the Son of God who could call twelve legions of angels at any time, yet at the same time totally submitting himself to the Father.  The Son of God simply made a decision to only do what he saw the Father doing and only speak what he heard the Father speaking.  That was God himself operating in humility.  Ultimately, humility is a mindset of total dependence on another for our needs.  Jesus was humble in that he chose to be totally dependent on the Father in every circumstance even though he knew heaven would come running at his call.  When we walk with that mindset, both humble and significant,  we can be great in the kingdom of God.

I have noticed a lot of social media comments this week about the half-time show at the Super Bowl.  I watched the game but not the half-time show.  Of course, the objections were for the over-sexualized production at half time that has been described as disgusting, shocking, perverse, and so forth. This was just the latest addition of such half-time shows going back to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce channeling her spirit (demon) in a hypersexual way.  The debate over the production reminded me of an article that our pastoral staff discussed only a week or so before the Super Bowl.  I thought you might be interested in some takeaways from the article related to a sexualized culture.  The article was written by Kirk Durston and was based on a book entitled Sex and Culture written by J.D. Unwin, a Cambridge social anthropologist. He studies a number of cultures contemporary and historic based on several criteria – one of which was a cultures level of sexual restraint.  It is a highly academic book so I will try to keep the quote brief.

Why Sexual Morality May be Far More Important than You Ever Thought

A few days ago I finished studying Sex and Culture for the second time. It is a remarkable book summarizing a lifetime of research by Oxford social anthropologist J.D. Unwin.  The 600+ page book is, in Unwin’s words, only a “summary” of his research—seven volumes would be required to lay it all out. His writings suggest he was a rationalist, believing that science is our ultimate tool of inquiry (it appears he was not a religious man). As I went through what he found, I was repeatedly reminded of the thought I had as a philosophy student: some moral laws may be designed to minimize human suffering and maximize human flourishing long term.

Unwin examines the data from 86 societies and civilizations to see if there is a relationship between sexual freedom and the flourishing of cultures. What makes the book especially interesting is that we in the West underwent a sexual revolution in the late 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s and are now in a position to test the conclusions he arrived at more than 40 years earlier.  

Unwin’s degrees of sexual restraint

Degrees of sexual restraint were divided into two major categories—prenuptial (pre-marital) and postnuptial (married). Prenuptial categories were:

1. Complete sexual freedom—no prenuptial restraints at all
2. Irregular or occasional restraint— cultural regulations require an occasional period of abstinence
3. Strict Chastity —remain a virgin until married

Postnuptial categories were:

1. Modified monogamy: one spouse at a time, but association can be terminated by either party.
2. Modified polygamy: men can have more than one wife, but a wife is free to leave her husband.
3. Absolute monogamy: only one spouse permitted for life (or until death in some cultures) 
4. Absolute polygamy:  men can have more than one wife, but wives must “confine their sexual qualities (i.e., activity) to their husband for the whole of their lives.”

So what did he find?

Here are a few of his most significant findings:

1. Effect of sexual constraints: Increased sexual constraints, either pre or post-nuptial, always led to increased flourishing of a culture. Conversely, increased sexual freedom always led to the collapse of a culture three generations later. 
2. Single most influential factor: Surprisingly, the data revealed that the single most important correlation with the flourishing of a culture was whether pre-nuptial chastity was required or not. It had a very significant effect either way.
3. Highest flourishing of culture: The most powerful combination was pre-nuptial chastity coupled with “absolute monogamy”. Rationalist cultures that retained this combination for at least three generations exceeded all other cultures in every area, including literature, art, science, furniture, architecture, engineering, and agriculture. Only three out of the eighty-six cultures studied ever attained this level.
4. Effect of abandoning prenuptial chastity: When strict prenuptial chastity was no longer the norm, absolute monogamy, deism (a culture in which considerations about God shape the culture, and rational thinking also disappeared within three generations.
5. Total sexual freedom: If total sexual freedom was embraced by a culture, that culture collapsed within three generations to the lowest state of flourishing — which Unwin describes as “inert” and at a “dead level of conception” and is characterized by people who have little interest in much else other than their own wants and needs. At this level, the culture is usually conquered or taken over by another culture with greater social energy.
6. Time lag: If there is a change in sexual constraints, either increased or decreased restraints, the full effect of that change is not realized until the third generation.

The conclusions of the writer were that America is far along the path (Super Bowl) and that we hit the self-destruct button, which began our countdown back in the 60’s.  The Cambridge scholar did not try to determine why cultures that showed sexual restraint flourished while those that did not began to circle the drain, but he thought maybe the energy that would have been expended on sexual pursuits were actually channeled intoscience, technology, the arts, etc.

I have another thought on that:  Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34 ). God created sexuality to be a holy thing shared by one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. He designed it to knit hearts and emotions together in a way that would strengthen the bond of marriage more than almost anything else.  It is such a holy thing that adultery was a capital offense under the Old Covenant.  Satan has made sexuality a prime target since the Garden of Eden.  In our time, a lack of sexual restraint has created a generation of fatherless children, a bevy of sexually transmitted diseases, a world haunted by gender confusion, an inability to bond properly with a spouse because of multiple sexual partners before marriage, a epidemic of brutal sex trafficking – both boys and girls, an additional epidemic of pornography, and most importantly, the removal of God’s blessing from nations.

So does the Super Bowl half time show really matter?  In one sense, it is just one more expression of a culture that has become sexualized to the point of shamelessness.  But more importantly, it is a probable indicator of the impending collapse of a great nation once blessed and used by God.  The good news is that there are still many who find such expressions objectionable.  We should.  The church must be the conscience of a nation for who else will speak out for righteousness?  Of course, speaking out is only part of the battle.  The only true solution is to evangelize the nation with the good news of Jesus Christ and the true freedom found in Him.  There are so many things the enemy has stolen from our culture that need to reclaimed and taken back by the church. A holy sexuality is one of those things and we must be in the fight…beginning with our own personal purity based on the Lord’s standard not the standard of our culture.

We have been considering keys to obtaining our promises in Jesus by looking at the Book of Joshua as they finally entered Canaan to obtain the promises for them that were first spoken to Abraham.  In my last blog we looked at the fall of Jericho and keys for obtaining promises related to that conquest.  I want to consider one more element of obtaining and maintaining promises as we end this little series.

After the great victory at Jericho, Israel was full of confidence for the battles ahead.  Jericho had been the first, the greatest, and the most significant city in Joshua’s campaign  to take the Promised Land from the foreign tribes that were living there.  As a kind of “first fruits” of battle and the promises to come, God had instructed them to dedicate Jericho to him.  They were to take no plunder and no slaves but to destroy and burn every part of the city.  They would be allowed to take plunder from the remaining battles, but this first one was to be given to God as an acknowledgement that he was the one who gave them victory and as judgment on the false god’s the inhabitants of Jericho had worshipped for hundreds of years. They indeed destroyed the city, except for Rahab and her family, and prepared for their next conquest – the city of Ai.

Ai was a much smaller city with inferior defenses. Joshua sent men to scout out the city that was to be eliminated next and they came back suggesting that Joshua send only two to three thousand men to Ai.  After the way God had given Jericho into their hands they thought Ai would be a picnic.  The text says that Joshua sent three thousand men, but they were routed by the smaller forces in Ai and thirty-six were killed. The people of Israel were devastated by the defeat.

“ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord…And Joshua said, ‘Ah sovereign Lord, why did you even bring the people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?’ … The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Stand up. What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant.’”  In the ensuing verses, Joshua discovers that a man named Achan had taken gold, silver, and clothing from Jericho and had hidden the plunder in his tent.  Because of his sin, God had removed his hand of protection from Israel so that they were defeated in battle.  In addition to that, Joshua had not first inquired of the Lord to see if they should attack Ai.  The Lord would have told him then that the covenant had been broken and they would be defeated.

There are several lessons in this for us. First of all, many promises of God are conditional.  Under the new covenant, faith and faithfulness are required to receive most of the promises.  In the New Testament, we see in the Parable of the Talents that financial success and favor are given when we have been good stewards of what God has already given us. Healing comes to those who have faith to receive it and the gift is given to those who believe God for it.  Peter could walk on water as long as he did not take his eyes off of Jesus and his faith did not waiver.   James tells us that we have not because we ask not or because we ask with selfish motives. We do not have to have perfect faith but we have to continue to pursue our relationship with God or the manifestation of the promise may be withdrawn.

Sometimes we are faithful until we receive what we wanted and then begin to act independently of the Lord as Joshua did when he attacked Ai without inquiring. When we begin to “maintain” the promise in our own strength, then the blessing of God may be withdrawn.  However, we also see in Joshua 7-8, that once the sin was discovered and dealt with, the promise still stood and God once again began to give them victories.

The principle is that sin can hinder the promises of God being fulfilled – our own sin or the sin of others we are associated with. The sins of leaders in nations, businesses, churches, or families can limit blessings that could have otherwise come to those they lead.   The sin of a spouse can hinder the fulfillment of God’s promises in the lives of family members. There is a way back to the promise through repentance but only if the sin is dealt with and repentance is genuine.  Paul tells us that we must not be yoked together with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6) in marriage, treaties, and business covenants. Our salvation may not be affected by those relationships but our blessings, answers to prayers, and fulfillment of promises may well be hindered.

I am convinced that many of our prayers go unanswered and the power of God is not displayed because our churches have little regard for holiness. We live in the age of compromise and tolerance.  Many of us have begun to tolerate in our own lives, our own churches,  and society things that God’s word calls sin. When there is “sin in the camp,” everyone is affected.  As individualistic Americans, we tend to view that principle as unfair.  Why should the sin of others cost us?   We need to remember that God makes the rules, not us.  When we tolerate sin in our own lives or in our church, it may well cost us. There is wisdom in that dynamic, however, because if I know someone else’s sin will cost me or my family, I will encourage them to live for the Lord and seek holiness…for their benefit as well as my own.  Of course, we have to guard against legalism and self-righteousness but Jesus was perfectly holy without being either of those. He accepted people where they were but did not leave them there. He was very gracious with the woman caught in adultery, but in the end instructed her to go and sin no more.

God has made many promises to his people and Paul tells us that in Jesus Christ every promise is “Yes” and “Amen.”  He wants to fulfill those promises for us. When there is a problem in the fulfillment of a promise, the problem is not on his end.  Of course, some promises are simply put on hold because of timing but we do need to examine ourselves to see if we are failing in one of the conditions of that promise.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there is something lacking or if sin is blocking the way. If there is, then repent and deal with the sin. If not, then keep seeking, asking, and knocking. Our God is a generous God who loves to give to his children and who loves to fulfill his promises. It is to his glory to do so.

The New Testament has a great deal to say about who we are in Christ. As a result there are many declarations among Christian writers and teachers outlining our identity.  In our own ministry we encourage those to whom we are ministering to read a two-page declaration out loud each day that states who we are in Christ. We ask them to do that for sixty days.

We say sixty days because recent brain research has demonstrated that it takes about that long for new neural pathways to form in our brains that contain the thoughts we have been repeating and reinforcing with our verbal declarations.  There are other strategies to strengthen the process of getting God’s word into our mind as part of the renewal process Paul calls us to in Romans 12:2. Writing out the declaration, using different colors to do so, using the non-dominant hand, and listening to a recording of the declarations in your own voice are examples.

What we believe about ourselves is a reliable indicator of whether we will succeed or fail in life – not just in careers but also in relationships, health, and even spiritual matters. Our self-image or our identity sets us up for confidence or insecurity.  It determines whether we face new relationships with an expectation of acceptance or rejection.  It determines whether we face the future with hope or fear.  It determines whether we feel strong or woefully vulnerable. We could go on, but you know the concept.

Ultimately our identity or self-image boils down to whether we think we are reasonably capable, significant, valuable, and lovable or whether we believe that we are defective, incapable, insignificant, and unlovable.

Scripture tells us over and over that in Christ we are loved, we are very significant, we are highly capable, and that we matter so much that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.  We are new creations, kings and priests, more than conquerors, sons and daughter of the Most High, God’s craftsmanship made for a divine purpose, totally forgiven, holy, and totally accepted by God.

When most believers read the things that God says about them, they discount the message and think that those things might be true for others but not for them.  Even after receiving salvation and the Holy Spirit, they continue to walk in their old identity – the old man -which we are commanded to put away. That image is typically negative. Sometimes the church has even wrapped a garment of acceptability around that negative self-image by calling it humility.

However, to discount or dilute the word of God on any topic is simply unbelief and unbelief invites the enemy and opens the door for him. We must always give God’s word more authority than our emotions, what our parents said, or what we have come to believe through past experiences. If we continue to walk in the shadow of a broken heart and a broken identity, we will never have faith that every one of God’s great promises are truly for us, and we will never face the enemy with confidence.

Whenever we minister deliverance, the standard thoughts pouring through the person’s mind to whom we are ministering are thoughts from the enemy such as:

• You belong to me and you will never be free.
• These people have no power over me.
• You will be alone and helpless without me.
• I don’t have to leave, I own you.
• And so forth.

His goal is to make God’s people feel helpless, weak and inadequate so that they back down from the confrontation. God has given us amazing promises.  He has told us that we have power and authority over the enemy.  We can resist the devil and he will flee from us.  We can join Jesus in destroying the works of the devil and we can do the works that Jesus did and even greater things by faith.  Believing that is the issue.

What I have discovered is that if we do not believe who we are, we will not believe what God is willing to do through us. In the face of Satan’s boasting and lies, we will wilt.  Faith is not just about what we believe about God, but about who we are in Christ as well. We have authority to cast out the enemy because of who we are in Christ.  We have strength to stand against his schemes because of who we are in Jesus.

As we disciple people, we should spend a great deal of time helping them know and believe what their position is in Jesus, because it is that position that gives them access to the throne room of God and the power and resources of heaven. Know one will truly know what their authority is in Christ until they know what their identity is in Christ as well. We should make a habit of not only declaring who God is on a daily basis, but also who we are in Christ on a daily basis as well.  When both of those things are settled in our hearts and minds, Satan has no chance.

We are continuing to discuss the theology of Cessationism that has been prevalent among most evangelical, mainstream churches in America and Western Europe for the past 500 years.  Those influenced by this theology hold the position that God worked miracles through men during certain historic seasons of the Old Testament and during the first century, but that miracles ceased to occur toward the end of the first century because they had fulfilled their purpose in establishing the church.  The idea that God has ceased to perform miracles for and through his people is where the term Cessationsist comes from. Its not that God does not answer prayer, but that he works within natural laws and natural processes as he answers prayer.  He no longer speaks to his people directly by his Spirit but only through his written word. He heals through doctors as he helps them to do their best, but does not heal supernaturally or raise the dead. He may quicken a man’s mind so that he learns a foreign language more quickly than others but he doesn’t supernaturally reveal the language as he did to the apostles on Pentecost with the gift of tongues.

If you are in a church that does not pray for supernatural healings, does not minister deliverance, and would never have someone stand in front of the church to prophesy, your pastor or church leaders have more than likely been indoctrinated with this view since they came to faith and were taught by men for whom they had great respect.  For them it is not just a theological position that some hold, but it is doctrinal truth.

Those who hold to this theology deny that God still intervenes in the natural order of things through miracles and especially deny that the Holy Spirit still distributes the “miraculous gifts” of prophecy, healings, tongues, miracles, words of knowledge, etc. I remember attending a meeting several years ago where mainline churches in our city had gathered together to pray for revival.  The second or third night of the meeting, one of the leaders of a large evangelical church came to the microphone with a prayer request.  He reported that a young woman in their church who was widely known and widely loved was in a hospital in Dallas, Texas where she was suffering from end-stage heart disease and had only days left to live without God’s intervention.  He asked if he could pray on her behalf.  I expected a prayer asking for God to heal her heart, but instead the prayer was for God to provide a heart for a heart transplant.  In other words, we prayed for someone to die so she could receive the heart and live. We prayed for God to manipulate the natural order of things so that they swung in her favor, but it never seemed to occur to the pastor to pray for direct, supernatural healing because God “doesn’t do that anymore.”  I’m not at all opposed to heart transplants, but it seems we should always pray for God’s supernatural and perfect healing first.  That is an example of Cessationsist theology.

Their argument for the end of miracles is based on several assumptions.

1. They have never seen an “authentic” miracle, like we see in the pages of the New Testament, therefore, they know that God no longer performs miracles, especially through men operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
2. God performed miracles through Jesus to confirm that he was the Son of God.After his resurrection and ascension, the miracles he performed had fulfilled their purpose.
3. God performed miracles through the apostles, in order to confirm that they were approved by God and that their teachings and writings were, therefore, inspired.
4. Once the historical record of the miracles of Jesus and the apostles was compiled, the purpose for miracles was fulfilled and miracles ceased.
5. The primary proof text for this position is found in 1 Corinthians. “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears” (1 Cor. 13:8-10). The argument is that the perfect thingor perfection is the completed New Testament.  Once the inspired scriptures were penned, there was no further need for the miracles because the Biblical record is sufficient to produce faith that leads to salvation.

There are, of course, other layers of the argument, but these are the main pillars on which this theology rests.  Once you have been taught and convinced of this theology, you are rarely open to any other possibility.  Those who claim to operate in the miraculous gifts are viewed as misled or charlatans ripping off ignorant people in tent meetings or on television. Anything that might hint of an authentic healing is written off as a psychosomatic condition that was relieved by the power of suggestion rather than a true disease being cured. Those who prophesy or speak in tongues are viewed as agents of the devil trying to mislead God’s people and anyone who would teach that the Holy Spirit still operates as he did in the Book of Acts is tagged as a teacher of false doctrine.

In my experience, there are many church leaders and pastors in Cessationist churches who long for more or suspect that God may still do something supernatural and outrageous from time to time, but they are uncertain of their view and keep their thoughts to themselves for the most part rather than risking being labeled as theologically suspect. I served in Cessationist churches for over 20 years and never saw an authentic miracle like you see on the pages of the New Testament (although I have seen many since becoming part of a charismatic or Continuistchurch).  I certainly saw abuses of the gifts of the Spirit and charlatans who were taking the money of desperate people.  Because of my theology, I tended to view all claims of the miraculous through that filter. I rarely traveled outside my own fellowship so I never encountered people I respected who held the view that the Holy Spirit still moves in power among his people.

Since we had no faith for the miraculous we neither asked for miracles nor expected them, so we saw none.  All of these things functioned in a way that only confirmed what we already believed.  Its not that the believers in these churches don’t love God or think he could do mighty works, they simply believe he chooses to no longer act in those ways.  As a result, good people who love God tend to live out a rather  powerless faith because they have no access to the powerful gifts of the Spirit meant to bless the church, evangelize the world, and set people free from all forms of bondage and torment served up by the enemy. Interestingly. in these churches the subject of demons and demonization rarely surfaces.  It may be because they have no answer if they don’t have the power of the Spirit operating today but when someone declares that God no longer works in supernatural ways, he or she tends to dismiss or minimize the supernatural in all forms.  As a result, demons often act without consequence and without opposition in these fellowships.

In my next blog, I will respond to the basic tenants of Cessationism and hopefully help some who read this blog step toward the full ministry of the Holy Spirit knowing that  they are on solid biblical ground when they do so.

If you minister to Christians who have been emotionally wounded and demonically oppressed, it doesn’t take long to discover that very few Christians know how to fight in the spiritual realm. Many don’t know how to fight because they have been taught by their churches that there is actually no spiritual realm here on the earth or they have been taught nothing and so come to that unconscious conclusion. For many, there is only earth, heaven, and hell.  In their view, we live on the earth the best life we know how and then we die and go to either heaven or hell which are thought of as spiritual locations far away that ouch us only after death.  Although these churches acknowledge temptation and, perhaps, some angelic activity, they don’t seem to connect the dots that point them to an active, spiritual realm right here on earth.

The spiritual realm on earth is a dimension that is separated from the natural realm by only a thin membrane rather than a location far, far away. When spiritual activity does occur around these believers, they don’t recognize it for what it is and, therefore, the spiritual realm, demons, angels, and moves of the Holy Spirit go unnoticed even though they may be greatly affected by it.  The devil does his best work when he is not recognized like the invisible man moving through a crowd picking pockets while never being seen.

There are many other Christians who definitely believe in the spiritual realm and are very aware of demons and angels. It is amazing how many people see demonic manifestations in their homes. They are often seen as dark shadows and sometimes appear as more terrifying figures. Children see the spiritual realm readily because they haven/t yet been taught to ignore what they see and write it off as imagination. But although they experience demons and recognize them for what they are, they still don’t know how to fight and many don’t even know that they can fight.  They live with fear and anger and sometimes the experience of being choked on their beds with a resignation that there is nothing they can do about it.  Often they are embarrassed to tell anyone for fear that others will think they are crazy.

Many spiritually oppressed people have come to believe that they have no power against the enemy.  Satan loves to intimidate and make claims that no one can deliver a person from his hand.  As we do deliverance, we usually instruct the oppressed individual to command the spirit to leave.  They often beg the spirit to leave or tearfully ask the spirit to leave – which is not at all commanding.  They clearly still believe that the devil has the upper hand and cannot be forced to leave, so they plead with a demon to leave who will never leave unless sternly commanded by the authority of Christ.  When a demon begins to manifest, in that individual, they rarely resist as if they have no power to refuse to cooperate with the unclean spirit.  Again, these believers have never been taught who they are in Christ and how to fight. After a season of ineffective resistance to a spirit, they simply give in to the torment. I have seen this over and over in God’s people.

Knowing how to fight with divine weapons in the spiritual realm should be a part of every believer’s basic discipleship.  Paul tells the church at Ephesus, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,”  (Eph.6:10-12).

According to Paul, the devil schemes against us and our real struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual authorities in heavenly realms. If we do not disciple our people in the realm of spiritual warfare they will be helpless against these enemies and, for the most part, that is what we see in the church. Many believe that prayer is the answer. So they pray for God to take away the torment but it continues. Because it continues, they give up.

I am not minimizing prayer because it is essential to everything we are and do as believers and is a significant part of spiritual warfare.  But the apostles and the early church were not taught to simply pray for God to remove the enemy, but to confront the enemy in the name of Jesus and command him to come out. God is not helpless to remove the torment but has chosen another way.

God did not instruct the Israelites to sit on the banks of the Jordon River and pray until he drove the enemies of Israel out of the Promise Land.  He told them to cross the Jordan and engage in battle.  His promise was to give them victory but they were to take sword in hand and confront the enemy.  We are to do the same. That is why prayer alone does not always bring freedom. That is why God has given us spiritual armor, the sword of the Spirit, which is his Word, and authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Lk.10:17).  We are to resist (oppose, take a stand against, push back) the devil and he will flee from us. And we are to exercise divine weapons to pull down strongholds or fortified places (2 Cor. 10:4).

When believers who have been oppressed by the enemy, finally discover who they are in Christ and discover the authority he has given them to drive out the enemy, they are transformed.  Their faith grows.  Their view of God grows. Their view of Satan shrinks and they are ready to free other captives in the name of Jesus. If you have not been trained in spiritual warfare, find someone to train you.  If you have been trained, then train others.  It is not for a few specialists in the church but for every believer so that they can defend themselves, their families, and push back the borders of darkness as soldiers of the Lord.  We have his authority, we have his power and we have an assignment to establish God’s kingdom on the earth.  The enemy will not go quietly or at our request.  It will take God’s people engaged in spiritual warfare on every front to clear the land. The victory is assured, but only when we confront the enemy in faith, with God going before us.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

A spirit of fear is one of the most pernicious spirits in the demonic realm.  We have all heard the axiom that fear is the opposite of faith and if faith produces peace, this fear produces inner turmoil.  Fear, phobias, and anxiety are almost epidemic in America – even among believers.  In a country where we should feel more secure than any other place in the world, our people are full of fear.

Fear is a natural response to danger and often is quite appropriate.  If you are walking through a West Texas field or canyon and hear a distinct rattle, fear is a very appropriate response. It stops you in your tracks, heightens every sense, and usually produces the good judgment to back up slowly.

But fear that becomes a resident in your life is not appropriate.  It robs you of peace, confidence, and a future because you fear moving into the future. It may make you timid and prompt you to stay in the shadows or it may make you an aggressive controller who only feels safe when you are in charge and telling everyone around you what to do. It is the source of worry that Jesus counsels against in Matthew 6.  It robs us of joy, of relationships, and eventually our health.  We often give into it, medicate it, and excuse it because we don’t know what else to do.

The phrase “Don’t be afraid” or “Fear not” is sprinkled throughout the scriptures. If fear were not so prevalent in the human race, God would not have said it so often.  Our first look at fear came immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.  They covered themselves and hid.  They were clearly afraid because they were suddenly aware of their nakedness and clearly believed at some level that the love and care of their father had been suddenly removed.  They feared punishment and the prospect of becoming orphans in a dangerous world.

Our current epidemic of fear is based on the same assumptions.  Somewhere in our lives, we had an experience that left us believing that either there is no God and we are on our own in a dangerous world or that God exists, but he is angry or detached, or powerless and we are still on our own in a world that wants to hurt us.   The spirit of fear and an orphan spirit always work together.  One whispers that no one cares for us or is looking out for us and the other prompts us to worry, seek control, and live with a generalized fear (anxiety) that disaster and loss is always in the pipeline.

God speaks to that over and over and the cure is simply faith that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, Moses was afraid to return to Egypt. He made every excuse possible for his unwillingness to obey God’s call. God’s consistent answer was that He would go with Moses. God’s presence would ensure his protection and provision. He promised the same to Israel and he promises the same to us.  There are hundreds of such promises in the Bible. The question is whether we will believe them.

Anxiety gets down to what we truly believe about God. Do we believe that he exists? Do we believe that he is good and that he cares about us?  Do we believe that he is willing to involve himself in our lives as our daily bread?  Do we believe he is powerful so that he cam provide our every need and overcome the enemy’s attacks in our life?

We could list all kinds of reasons that we might find it hard to overcome our human experiences and trust God when we have never met anyone else who would not eventually let us down.  But the truth is that we must come to believe God if we are going to live without fear.  That is where a spirit of fear operates.  He whispers that God can’t be trusted.  He whispers that God was there for us in the past but we can’t count on him in the future.  He whispers that God is there for other believers but not for us because we are too defective, too perverse, and too unbelieving.  He simply whispers that, like others, when we need God the most, he won’t be there for us. Not only that but he pervades the airwaves.  The news and the talk shows are full of fear that we are always on the edge of extinction and catastrophe.  When we watch or listen to the pundits, we absorb the fear from our environment. We feel as if the problem is so big or so pervasive that even God can’t deliver us.

So…how do we come to believe God…not just at an intellectual level but in our hearts as well?  How do come to believe that he exists, he loves us, he wants to be actively involved in every second of our lives, and that he is an all-powerful Father who wants the best for us? How do we come to believe that when we have experienced trauma, loss, and betrayal in this life more than once and wonder where was this powerful, loving God when I lost my spouse or my child or contracted MS? I will share some thoughts on all of that in my next blog.