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.

When we talk about the spiritual realm, many believers still have a vague notion about heaven and the spiritual realm in general.  Many still think of it as ethereal, airy, or even ghostly.  They think of it as a place without real substance and, perhaps, still think of winged saints floating on clouds and playing harps. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The spiritual realm is very real and very substantive…both the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.  In the same way people imagine heaven as some place without substance, they think of hell in the same way and tend to fictionalize Satan because we have a deficit in our overall view of the spiritual realm.

Let’s begin with the unseen realm, in general.  Paul declares, “For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).  If something is eternal, it has more substance, more power, and is a greater reality than those things that are temporary.  The bodies we will  receive at the resurrection will be eternal, immune to disease, and untouched by death.  They will not age, feel exhaustion, or break down.  They will be spiritual bodies with substance while living on a restored earth.  Like the glorified body of Jesus after the resurrection, there will be substance.  He ate.  He talked.  He let his disciples touch him, put their hands in his, and touch the place where the spear was thrust.  Yet, it was superior.  He could pass through walls, change appearance, and ascend into heaven or Paradise with that body. So the spiritual realm is far superior to the natural realm.

In the current heaven, the one Randy Alcorn calls an intermediate heaven in his book Heaven, he notes that there is already a heavenly Jerusalem revealed to John and described in the Book of Revelation.  The heavenly Jerusalem currently has streets of gold, the throne room of God, myriads of angels and saints who have already gone to be with Jesus.  There are gates made of pearl. There is a heavenly tabernacle after which the earthly tabernacle was fashioned (Heb. 8:1-2).   Alcorn calls it an intermediate heaven because, the Book of Revelation reveals that at the end, the Heavenly Jerusalem will come down and rest on a restored earth where we will be God’s people and live with him forever. The promise of Eden will be reclaimed.

So, the spiritual realm is not a ghostly, ethereal place with little to no substance.  It is real. It is solid. It is eternal.  It has buildings, a throne room, a sanctuary, court rooms, bowls of burning incense, powerful angels who do the bidding of God and saints who are waiting for all this to culminate in the return of Christ to the earth.

Likewise, the demonic or satanic realm is real and solid.  Paul tells us, “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. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground” (Eph. 6:12-13). Power, organization, and demonic forces exist in the spiritual realm that oppose the will of God and strategize against God’s people.  Paul also states, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13). Dominion requires a domain, a territory, an area of authority.  There is a kingdom of darkness over which Satan is the prince.  He has territory, armies, and rulers under him that do his bidding.

Jesus called him the prince of this world and Paul states, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Eph. 2:1-20).  “Kingdom” implies territory, power, subjects, armies, etc.  Satan is no match for Jesus, but in his sovereignty, God still allows him to exercise power and the authority people and nations give him on this earth.

In these last days, the kingdom of darkness is pulling out all the stops.  Those humans who serve Satan – witches, warlocks, satanists, etc. actively and willingly serve him and oppose the people of God.  Many others are unwittingly used by the enemy to oppose righteousness in the earth so that entire cultures now call evil good and good evil. 

All this is to remind us that the spiritual realm is very real and more powerful and consequential than the natural realm.  Those who deny the reality of these things or who do not take them seriously will be easy targets for the enemy.  They will live unaware of Satan’s schemes and so will easily step into his traps. They will be ineffective soldiers who do not know how to wage war with divine weapons.  They will search out solutions for all their problems within the natural realm. When the source of their problem is demonic attacks and satanic strategies, they will not be able to touch the spiritual roots of their crisis and will never gain victory.  They will not be able to pray effectively and will not wield the authority and power of Christ against spiritual enemies. Churches, nations, and families will be ravaged by the enemy because they will not know how to recognize or stand against the attacks that scripture says are inevitable.

Let me encourage you to pay more attention to the spiritual realm.  Jesus has given us all we need to overcome the enemy, but we have to be aware of the enemy’s schemes, know what is in the arsenal of heaven, and know how to use the divine weapons he has provided.  Be blessed in the days ahead.

This week’s blog may seem a little “out there,” if you have not been involved in spiritual warfare or have not been actively engaged in the fight for very long.  For those of us who have been involved in deliverance and house cleansings and have studied the spiritual realm for years, this seems matter-of-fact.

The spiritual realm is very real. The Word of God confirms that reality.  The Apostle Paul declared, “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.6:11-12).

Notice several things from this passage.  We (all believers) struggle against the powers of this dark world (witches, warlocks, satanists, etc.) and spiritual forces of evil. The word translated “struggle” means close, hand to hand combat. We will have, close personal encounters with demonic forces who intend to kill, steal, and destroy.  We encounter these forces as a result of Satan’s schemes against us.  The word translated “scheme” denotes a well-studied and implemented plan of attack.  Satan develops and releases a logical and studied strategy to destroy us. 

The most successful demonic strategies against us are subtle.  There is no horned entity breathing fire with saber-like teeth and dragon wings trying to break down the door. These strategies come in the form of temptations that wear us down day after day and draw us away from God’s will a little at a time…a little drink with friends that over time becomes several drinks and eventually dependence on alcohol.  A gradual flirtation in the work place that eventually erodes boundaries.  You begin to imagine an intimate moment with the other party but dismiss it, knowing that would be not only wrong but catastrophic. But the month both of you are having trouble at home, you take the next step and Satan pulls the trigger. Satan is patient.  If the process takes a year or two, he doesn’t mind.

The strategy designed to take you out is so gradual you would never think of it as a demonic plot against you.  These attacks also come in the form of slight depression, a little anxiety, a little resentment, a steady whisper that you are always being victimized, an occasional glance at porn, not feeling your best, but over time…it becomes more than a little depression, fear, resentment, anger and pornography. You assume these issues are part of life, having a bad day, living in a fallen world, etc.  And that is true, but many times there is also a demonic component to your struggles.

You may seek prayer, counseling, accountability partners, support groups and medications, but, if the root is spiritual attack, these will not solve the problem.  You may be able to “manage” your issue most of the time, but the enemy will work tirelessly to undermine your “managing.”

I want to talk about a specific strategy the enemy uses against many believers. It’s invisible.  It’s silent.  It happens at night. I have heard this strategy revealed by several former witches and Satanists who used to carry out assignments against believers.  I have had personal conversations with those who were once steeped in occultism but became followers of Jesus. Nearly all of them came to Jesus because they found their occult powers could not match the powers of Jesus or they had a “love encounter” with the Christ that filled the emptiness they were trying to remedy through witchcraft.  After their encounter with Jesus, they were quite willing to talk about the strategies Satan uses against God’s people.

Witches and Satanists partner with demons to do the bidding of Satan.  Active witches’ covens and satanic groups are extremely prevalent in our nation right now.  One of their tools is astral projection by which their spirit leaves their body and travels about. Frequently, they enter the homes of believers to carry out assignments against them.  The prime time for these visits is between midnight and three in the morning…the time when the barrier between the natural realm and spiritual realm seems to be the thinnest. Clearly, not every believer is going to be visited, but leaders in churches would be the most likely targets or other believers at vulnerable times in their lives.  This strategy may be detected when believers are experiencing emotional, relational, or health issues that don’t seem to make sense and cannot be adequately explained.

Sometimes they simply observe, moving through the house seeing what is there and what might give Satan a legal right to afflict these people.  They sometimes function as monitoring spirits simply doing reconnaissance to help develop schemes against you. Sometimes, they stand over your bed and whisper things into your mind or dreams that create fear, doubt, sadness, depression, resentments, distrust, etc.  You wake up feeling off, down, anxious, etc. without knowing why.  They may reinforce temptations to drawn you away from Jesus.  They may instigate nightmares or distrust between spouses because you are asleep and, like hypnotic suggestions, your critical thinking defenses are not operating. They may instigate health issues that are not easily diagnosed or treated. They may assign demons to continue the strategies they helped develop including spirits of infirmity (sickness) and fatigue.

One former witch said she carried out these night time visitations for over a decade.  Now, as a believer she pleads with Christians to be aware of these schemes and to take steps to prevent these witches, warlocks, and demonic spirits from entering their homes. As we live in these end times, demonic activity against Gods’ people is ramping up. I want to give you a plan to resist these schemes. The former witch said when she came to believers’ homes that did not do these things, she was able to move through the house freely.  When she was assigned to homes where these strategies were practiced, she could gain no entrance.  Sometimes the house seemed to be ringed by fire and, at other times, angels were standing guard.

1. Never go to bed before asking the Lord to protect you and your family from the evil one. Ask him to set sentries (angels) around your home and establish a hedge of protection.

• Each night, verbally dedicate and submit your home and your family to the Lordship of Jesus. 

• Declare protective scriptures over your house nightly…Psalm 91, Isaiah 54:17, etc.

• Perform regular house cleansings, commanding spirits to leave your house and property in the name of Jesus and anointing each door and window with oil (olive oil).

• Remove any objects in your house that do not line up with the holiness of God… occult objects, occult keepsakes, music that does not honor God, videos that do not honor God, etc.  This may include freemasonry tokens, dream catchers, astrology charts, even cultural artifacts that were used in the worship of false gods or that were dedicated to those gods.

• Avoid television, video games, and streaming that is violent, pornographic, or occult.

• Play praise music or the audio Bible softly at night somewhere in the house.

• Keep your relationship with God fresh, your forgiveness up to date, and your confession and repentance current.  These things take away the enemy’s legal right to afflict you.

I want to encourage you to be more thoughtful and intentional about the enemy’s schemes against you.

Don’t be fearful but wise.  Be proactive in your spiritual warfare and know it is a very real thing. 

If you haven’t noticed, the world is becoming a very dangerous place once again.  Terrorism, assassinations, antisemitism, violence, rage, and hate speech are rampant and highlighted on the news 24/7.  In a season that is supposed to promote peace on earth,  that is not what most of us are feeling.  And yet, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (Jn. 14:27).

If we want to live with a sense of peace while the world explodes around us, there are some decisions we need to make.  This peace does not come automatically, but comes through obedience to the wisdom of Jesus. 

First of all, Jesus directed us to eliminate fear and worry by focusing on the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of men.  “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Mt. 7:31-34).

An old story tells of a man leaving an ancient city and as he walks out, he encounters

Death.  He asked Death what he was up to and Death replied, “I’m going to this city to collect lives and take them to the afterlife. The man said, “What a terrible thing!” Death shrugged and replied, “It’s what I do.”  Days later, the man was returning and encountered Death again as Death was leaving the city. The man had already heard reports of hundreds and hundreds of people who had died since he left.  He scolded Death for all the destruction he had visited on the city and the grief and loss he had produced.  Death replied, “Oh, I only came for a few, Fear and Worry got the rest.”

Fear and worry are our enemies.  They rob us of peace, health, sleep, joy and fruitfulness.  They damage our relationships. Every doctor or research scientist will tell you that stress is our number one enemy. It impacts our physical health, our spiritual health, and our emotional health. Stress comes from worry and fear.  And yet the most repeated command is scripture is, “Do not be afraid!”  That Is a mindset we discipline ourselves to maintain.

Here are a few verses that can help us lay aside our worry and fear. 

Matthew 7:31-34 (quoted above).  Choose to focus daily on the kingdom, the power, the faithfulness of God, and his promises for provision and protection. Do not look at what you don’t have but what you do have.  Don’t fixate on the prayer yet to be answered,  but on all the prayers to which God has already said yes.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil. 4:8).  Make a choice to think about good things, pure things, praiseworthy things, etc. rather than thinking about the unholy, criminal, violent, perverse things of the world. 

This means choosing what you watch on television, listen to on talk radio, and review on social media. This means monitoring your conversations with friends and family. There is a spirit of fear attached to so much of what we hear about on television twenty-four hours a day.  That spirit will attach itself to you if you come into agreement with it. It will get into your heart and head and rob you of the blessings that could be yours in Christ. Most of what we see and hear about does not touch us and we cannot affect it except by prayer. I’m not saying we should be totally oblivious to what is going on in the world, but we should not dwell on it.  Watch the news briefly, ask the Lord how he wants you to pray about what is going on, pray about it, and release it for the day.  Turn your focus to positive things, heavenly things and over time your stress will abate, your health will improve, and you will find joy in life again.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (1 Cor. 10:5-6). Monitoring your thought life and making sure your thoughts are aligned with the teachings and commands of Jesus is the essence of spiritual warfare. When you find yourself entertaining thoughts that are contrary to the Word of God, renounce those thoughts, repent of having come into agreement with them, and command any unclean spirit producing those thoughts to leave you immediately…especially worry and fear.

“Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things” (Col.3:2-3).  We spend way too much time thinking about the world and events in the world.  Our home is in heaven and we need to discipline ourselves to think often about home: the glory, the joy, the abundant life, the promise of eternal life without disease or loss, our reunion with loved ones, the presence of a perfect Father and a perfect Savior.  Paul focused often on heaven and finally said, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christand be found in him” (Phil. 3:7-9).

During this season of Peace on Earth, let me assure you that the peace Jesus spoke of is peace in your heart, not in the world around you.  The same peace that Jesus had while sleeping on a sinking boat on Galilee is available to us.  It comes from fixing our thoughts on things that produce faith and peace and limiting our time with the things that steal our peace.  If married, agree with your spouse to break the old habits of bad news and more bad news.  If you are single, agree with a friend. Turn the channel or turn it off. Focus on the good news of Jesus Christ and not the bad news on Fox. Find value in silent nights where we can hear the Lord rather than nights filled with the discouraging noise of the world around us. In just a week, you will feel the difference.  Blessings in Him.

We often think of spiritual warfare as powerful prayers, authoritative declarations, or encounters with the demonic through deliverance.  That is part of the equation, but building proactive walls of defense is a better strategy, in the same way as keeping burglars away from  your property with great security measures is far superior to a confrontation with a stranger in your home in the middle of the night.

Scripture often calls on us to guard our hearts and minds because those are most often the entry points of the enemy.  The most comprehensive statement about this may be found in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:4-9, emphasis added).

One of the most common and yet undetected strategies of the enemy is to create dissatisfaction in our hearts and minds. In some ways, that was his first ploy recorded in scripture.  Satan spoke to Eve and said, “Did God really say ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’” (Gen. 3:1)?  With these words he slyly implied that God was stingy…that he was the kind of God who would withhold good things from his children.  Eve went on to say that they could eat from any tree in the garden except one – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Satan countered by implying that the forbidden tree was actually the best tree in the garden and the only one that really mattered. Instead of being grateful for the abundance God had provided, Eve suddenly focused on the one thing God had withheld.  Suddenly, she thought that all her happiness and significance was to be found in the one tree that was out of her reach, even though the Tree of Life was always available.

In the same way, when God led the Hebrews out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they quickly stopped being thankful for their new found freedom and the miraculous deliverance God had provided.  They quickly stopped being grateful for the land God had promised them that was actually only a few days away and began to focus on their immediate desires.  Within days they began to complain about their lack of meat, their lack of water on demand, and the “boring manna” they ate each day, and so forth.  Through their complaints, they immediately cast God as a God who did not care about  their needs, who only had catastrophe planned for their future, and who brought them out of slavery only to abandon them in the desert.

Once we begin to focus on “the one thing” we desire that God has yet to provide and forget about all the other blessings he has given us, we begin to see God though the eyes of Eve and the Israelites who questioned God’s goodness, his intentions, and his provision for his people.  Through our own accusations, our trust begins to diminish and we come into agreement with the enemy.  Unfortunately, this focus on what I don’t have rather than on what I do have is human nature and a tendency we must guard against.  Madison Avenue preys on this idea that my happiness is always found in one more thing.

Intentional prayer with thanksgiving is the weapon against this universal scheme of Satan.  As Thanksgiving approaches, we are reminded of this principal but would do well to practice it year-round.  To rehearse all that God has done for me in the past, all that he is doing in the present, and his promises for my future is a form of worship and keeps my heart and mind fixed on him as good, as my provider, as my savior, and my deliverer…even when I might be facing extraordinary challenges. 

Unfortunately, I keep running into people in counseling who have come to define love as someone giving them whatever they want, whenever they want it.  No matter how much they have been given, the minute one desire is withheld, they declare they are not loved. They feel abandoned and betrayed at the first “no,” no matter how much has been given and how many needs have been met before.  A good father says “no” or “not yet” to many desires of his young children as they grow and mature.  Our Father has not lied about the pain that will inevitably come our way in a fallen world.  These responses to our prayers and hardships that come are not evidence that he doesn’t love us, but his presence and his grace to face these hardships is the evidence of his love.

Satan loves to bait us with that attitude whenever God says “no” or “not now” to any request or any longing we have in our lives.  The key to overcoming Satan in these situations is to have an unbreakable confidence in the nature of God that he is good, he is love, he hears our prayers, and he always is working in our best interest.  The practice of thankfulness continually reinforces our faith in his character and the belief that he is good, even when a longing or a need seems to go unanswered for the moment.

If Eve had believed with rock solid certainty before her sin that God was a generous God who met her every need and protected her from things her flesh desired but that would destroy her in the end, she would not have taken and eaten.  We need that same certainty before Satan whispers again that God is holding out on us and keeping from us some singular source of our happiness apart from him.

A journal with all the things we are thankful for in our past and in our present would be a great Thanksgiving project (singularly or as a family) that would be a helpful reminder when Satan comes to tempt our mind and our hearts. Adding to it daily through the year, would also be a strong testimony against his lies.  The testimonies of thanks would be a great tradition to be read and added to each Thanksgiving.

The Bible is full of moments when monuments were created (piles of stone) as a reminder of what God had done for his people in a certain circumstance, traditions such as Passover and the other feast days, and the Lord’s Supper.  These are all testimonies of the love and care of God for his people. Some personal reminders (testimonies) of God’s goodness to you, would also be a blessing and a powerful weapon when the devil comes calling.

Have you ever driven a car that needed a front end alignment? Somehow one front tire was no longer parallel to the other.  Tires usually get out of alignment by hitting curbs,  dropping into potholes, or experiencing a fender bender.  As you drive the front end begins to vibrate (sometimes intensely), the tires wear out quickly, and even breaking can be affected.  If it is severe enough, the car is practically undriveable. When you start to feel the front end shutter, it’s time to go to an alignment shop where they will make adjustments or replace parts so your front wheels are perfectly parallel again and going in the same direction.

As believers, we need to check our own spiritual alignment, from time to time, to see if we are going in the same direction as Jesus.  Misalignment with Jesus can wear us out and damage us.  Those places in our lives that are not parallel with Jesus, give Satan an opening in our lives to afflict and oppress. Sometimes when we have gone through a stretch of rough road in our lives or have hit a few speed bumps hard, our alignment can drift.  Let me suggest a couple of things we need to inspect to make sure we are still on track.

For most of us, our alignment begins to suffer in areas that are not what we think of as overt sins…adultery, pornography, excessive drinking, drug addiction, embezzlement, abuse, etc.  To be sure, faithful Christians can fall into the snare of the devil and find themselves in these deep weeds of sin wondering how they got there. If we were to examine ourselves we would quickly identify those areas as something that needed repentance and immediate realignment. The people in our lives who cared about us would also point those things out for our benefit.

In many cases, however, Satan prefers to be more subtle.  We just finished a Freedom Weekend where fifty or so people spent an entire afternoon getting free from demonic oppression of one form or another.  Some had entered in through trauma or seasons of sin in their lives.  They were very aware of the oppression that had been coming from those spirits. But others had been oppressed and afflicted for decades and had come to assume that their struggle was just the fabric of life about which nothing could be done…years of anxiety, depression, people pleasing, self-loathing, and so forth. So often we need to look at the not-so-apparent sin to see where we are out of alignment and where the enemy has established a subtle stronghold in our lives.

To begin, the great sin of Israel that God rebuked over and over was idolatry.  That is easy to identify if we are bowing down before graven images and going up to the temples of false Gods to offer sacrifices. But in America, our gods  – the things we put before the God of Heaven – are more difficult to identify because they are an accepted part of our culture.  An idol is anything that we give a greater priority to than God.  It is an alternate source of idenitfy, security, provision, and protection that we go to rather than looking to Jesus.

Many of these idols are even good things when kept in perspective.  We all need a job to provide for our families and to help others in need.  But how many have placed careers ahead of Jesus, ahead of spiritual family, and even our biological family.   No one seems concerned when we can’t worship together or serve in the kingdom because we have to work. Sometimes, we have no choice, but more often we choose it by choosing the career and we choose the career because we want more money, a bigger house, a boat, a fully decked out pickup, and everything our children want that we didn’t have. Our career and our possessions become our identity – our source of significance rather than God.

Nothing is wrong with any of those things by themselves, but when they take priority over God and the Bride of Christ (his church) month after month, they have become “acceptable idols.”  And yet, we always feel justified in our choice to put Jesus after our career, after our recreation, after our children’s activities, and so forth because the good people in our culture approve.  Yet Jesus was very clear that if we don’t put him above everything else in this life, we cannot be his disciple.  A good look at our time, our expenditures, and our involvements might reveal an idolatry we don’t really want to acknowledge.

A second area in which the enemy thrives is in our words. Remember Jesus said that on the Day of Judgment, we will have to give account for every careless word we have spoken. When we come into agreement with Satan through angry, cynical, unbelieving, and judgmental words, we open the door for him.  Ephesians 4:29 counsels us to let no unwholesome talk come out of our mouths but only words that are good for building others up.  We often justify our negative talk and judgments we place on others by assuming they deserve what we said. However,  there are no “unless they deserve it” clauses in God’s command to bless and not curse even our enemies. Gossip, constant criticism, angry outbursts, constant criticism, judgmental statements, etc. also constitute open doors.

Another open door I have become sensitive to lately is the door of non-submission. Scripture clearly commands that we are to be submitted to Jesus, to leaders, children to parents, wives to husbands, employee to employers, etc.  And yet, how many of us are unsubmitted…especially, in our hearts.  The core of Satan’s fall was rebellion…a refusal to submit.  When we rebel against God’s order of authority, we rebel against him.  Certainly, when we come into agreement with the devil on this matter, we provide a legal right for him to attack us.

Finally, I think another open door that few of us consider is a low level of holiness in our lives. On several occasions, scripture calls us to be holy even as He is holy.  We are commanded to avoid the unclean things in the world around us.  But certainly, many of us  compromise holiness with the things we watch, read, listen to, sometimes the people we spend time with, and the environments we frequent.  Remember Paul’s admonition, “Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:17-18).  We may want to take a holiness inventory, from time to time, to see how well we are aligned with the holiness of God.  Misalignment there, will also be an invitation to the enemy.

I’m not advocating a spiritual paranoia but I am encouraging us to take an inventory from time to time to see where carelessness, rationalizations, and idolatry may be subtle, but over time will allow the enemy entrance into our lives.  We will want to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal those areas to us and bring conviction where it is needed.  In the natural world, we keep our doors and windows locked, set up security systems and keep our homes well lit at night.  Perhaps, we (myself included) need to be as diligent in the spiritual realm where the stakes are even higher.

The first level of spiritual warfare is temptation. That will be our first encounter with the enemy.  It will not be a frontal assault but an invitation to find our comfort, our significance, or our provision in sources other than God.   Matthew records the showdown between Jesus and Satan in the 4^th chapter of his gospel.  The text says, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan” (Mt. 4:1).

In those temptations, Satan was simply trying to draw Jesus outside of God’s will.  The first temptation was about food. In essence, he was saying, “If you really are the Son of God, do your thing.  Don’t wait on God’s provision but turn these stones into bread.  Does he not care that you’re hungry? Take matters into your own hands and provide for yourself.” 

The second temptation was about calling out God to keep his promise of protection.  “Throw yourself off the temple wall and prove you are the Son of God and that he loves you.” In other words, make a demand on his goodness on your terms.  Again, Satan is tempting Jesus to take matters into his own hands rather than to be led by God.

Finally, Satan offered Jesus a shortcut to fulfill his life’s purpose. He took Jesus upon a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world.  The destiny of Jesus is to rule over all the earth and Satan offered him that destiny without suffering.  All he had to do was bow down and worship Satan.  He offered him a crown without a cross. 

Satan tempts us all to take things into our own hands…to run ahead of God and decide what is best for us, rather than waiting on him. He tempts us to make demands on God by deciding how and when his promise should be answered in our lives.  If he doesn’t meet our expectations (demands), we take offense.  He tempts us to take shortcuts in fulfilling our destiny.  We enter into relationships without prayer and marriage without wisdom. We manipulate circumstances to get what we want before we are ready to steward the blessing or the promotion. 

In each of these temptations, Satan is whispering that God is taking too long or that he can’t be counted on. He tempts us to take control, manage things ourselves.  If God has promised it,  then grab it now…there is no need to wait. Yet the mark of Jesus’ ministry was to do only what he saw the Father doing and say only what he heard the Father saying. He waited on the Father’s provision and timing and trusted him in those decisions.

When we give in to the temptation, we are coming into agreement with Satan, just as Adam and Eve agreed in the garden.  To do so gives the enemy a legal right to afflict us, torment us, or oppress us because our actions accuse God.  We usually start our spiritual warfare when we feel the torment or oppression, but we should recognize it begins with the temptations and cut it off there.

Here is the thing.  Satan rarely offers us things that are clearly sinful.  Often they are good things, but the sin is in our choice to get those things apart from God, his direction, or his timing.  Adam and Eve saw that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a source of wisdom…which God wants us to seek.  But they sought wisdom from another source other than their creator. We sometimes become like children who know they have an inheritance waiting for them but choose to steal it from their father or demand it rather than waiting on his timing and his judgement about what is best for them.  The “Prodigal Son” comes to mind (Lk. 15).

Jesus cut off the temptation attack in two ways.  First of all, he was absolutely convinced of his Father’s love and that his Father’s directions were to be trusted at all times for the best possible outcomes.  In other words, he trusted God to be good to him and to do so at the right time.  Secondly, he had stored up the Father’s Word in his heart so that he could draw from that storehouse to inform his decisions when temptation came his way

The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). When we engage the enemy, we should do so with the sword.  Satan is always seeking a legal reason to afflict us.  Revelation calls him “the accuser of the brethren, who accuses us before our God day and night.”  When we declare the Word of God, obey it, and stand on it, we establish that we are law keepers rather than law breakers.  It disarms the enemy in the courts of heaven and keeps him at bay.  After Jesus invoked the Word of God three times, Satan abandoned his assault.  That does not mean he won’t come back, but he left Jesus for a season waiting for another time when he might find Jesus vulnerable.

We need to understand that resisting temptation is our first and foremost strategy in spiritual warfare. Renewing our mind daily by meditating on the Word is essential.  We cannot wield God’s sword if we do not have it in our heart and mind.   Being quick to acknowledge sin, confess it, and repent of it, is also essential.  It is persistent, unrepented sin that most often opens the door for Satan to get a foothold.  It is also imperative that we monitor our own thought life so that we may make every thought submit to Jesus.  It is our recurring thoughts and the enemy’s rationalizations for choosing to step outside of the will of God that we must diligently guard against. 

One other important strategy for proactively keeping the enemy outside the walls is to find out more about our family line.  It is amazing how many of us have little to no history on our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents.  Satan often gains access to believers through their bloodlines. Remember,  Exodus 20 declares that the sins of the fathers will be visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.  The guilt is not passed down but the consequences are passed down which may include curses that have been incurred due to unrepented sin in the bloodline.  Many bloodlines are stained with adultery, molestation, witchcraft, violence, racism, and so forth.  These issues need to be discovered, if possible, and then renounced and repented of on behalf of our ancestors to keep Satan from using them against us and our children.  The holidays might be a great time to ask about family history…the good, the bad and the ugly.

Again, many times we don’t engage in spiritual warfare until the enemy is pummelling us.  It is much better to realize we must always stay on a war footing with the enemy and detect when he us trying to draw us out of God’s will in our thoughts or actions. The man who taught me the most about deliverance always said, “It is better to realize that someone is trying to break into your house than to realize he is already inside.”  Proactive prevention is the best strategy for spiritual warfare.  We don’t need to be paranoid, but we do need to be wise.  Ask the Holy Spirit to alert you to Satan’s attempted intrusions and keep the doors locked and the lights on.

This is the political season. I say that with the knowledge that the political season seems to be twelve months long now.  Politicians seem to go from one campaign to the next and only govern from time to time if they get the chance.

For the most part, politics is a war of words.  The down side is that, in this day and age, everything a person has said seems to be recorded in one way or another…videos of speeches given years ago, copies of emails, text messages, I-phone recordings, and articles written in an obscure paper or journal but now easily accessed by search engines.  Some of these were public records while others were obtained by someone hacking into a personal database.

When confronted with their past words, the typical result is denial, embarrassment, spin, and every other deflection the man or woman can think of to avoid the consequences of their verbal declarations.  Some statements seem to represent a policy decision they say they no longer believe.  Others seem have the scent of racism or bigotry or hate toward a group or an individual. Then the person, confronted with their own words, claims they were taken out of context or they didn’t really mean it. Failing at that, they simply issue a general apology for their totally improper remarks (which typically means I am sorry I got caught).

The truth is, most of us speak with little thought for the consequences that might spring from what was spoken.  If we are angry or frustrated, we blurt out whatever comes to mind before thinking at all. We find those words are hard to take back when the result of our speaking is not in our favor.  When confronted, we are often offended that someone is trying to hold us accountable for what we thought we could say without repercussions. We seem to live as if our words don’t matter…like bubbles floating into the air and disappearing.  Occasionally, I need a reminder that my words do matter…very much.

The Word of God puts a great deal of weight on what we say and paints those who blurt out whatever comes to mind as foolish people.  Wise men and women weigh their words.  They think before they speak.  They assess the consequences, for themselves and others, of the words they are about to let slip out.  One of the most sobering passages about our words was spoken by Jesus himself. “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:35-37).

First of all, Jesus taught that our words are indicators of the content of our hearts. “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them (Matt. 18:15). After saying something that embarrasses us later, we often say, “I don’t know why I said that.  That is not who I am!”  We must admit, however, that is was part of who we are or it would not have come out of our mouth. I admit demonic spirits can prompt us to say things that are “not who we are” or who we want to be, but then we need to deal with that spirit.

Rather than denial, blaming, or deflecting, if we would own what we said and submit that patch of darkness in our heart to the Lord, the Holy Spirit could do some scrubbing.  David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51).  I have had to offer that prayer on many occasions, and I think my heart is better aligned with the Fathers heart now than in was in the past.

Men will sometimes hold us accountable for our words, but the spirit realm will always hold us accountable.  Somewhere in the spirit realm, something or someone is recording every “careless word I have spoken.”  That phrase from Matthew 12, which is translated empty or careless is not just talking about bad language, cussing, or using the Lord’s name in vain.  It is talking about words we speak without thinking.  He is not saying our well thought our words expressing hate or lust will not be judged but he is saying that we will not be able to stand before the Lord and say, I couldn’t help it!” or “I didn’t mean it.” I am convinced Satan frequently gains a legal right to afflict us through our “careless words.”  A strong thread that runs through the book of Proverbs teaches over and over to be slow to speak, to hold our peace, and to carefully measure our words.  Just because we think something, we do not have to speak it. 

In addition to revealing our hearts, our words carry authority that releases power. The familiar proverb says, “The tongue has the power of life and death” (Prov. 18:21).  Your words have power…not just in the natural realm, but in the spiritual realm as well. The fruit of our lips can be sweet or bitter.  We can impart blessings or curses.  They can command healing or command destruction.  Our words are seeds sown in both the natural and spiritual realms around us.  One of God’s immutable laws is that we will reap what we have sown and harvest what we have planted.  Our words are seed that produce life, blessing, abundance, peace and success or that bring forth death, weakness, lack, failure, and torment…in the lives we have spoken over and in our own life as a harvest of what we have spoken over others.  

As we watch the pundits and politicians broadcast their words this political season and try to disown words they have already spoken, let it remind us that we are not to be careless with our words for we will have to give an accounting for them.  When our words tip us off that something dark is in our heart, take it to Jesus.  When we find ourselves popping off without thinking, ask the Holy Spirit to shut our mouths when we are about to speak careless words hurtful words, or offensive words. Pray that the Lord will make our mouths a fresh spring that extrudes life and blessings and not a spring full of salt that kills everything it touches.

God is serious about our words and we should be as well.  Our prayer should be, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight” (Ps. 19:14).