As the demon uncle in C.S. Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters says, "Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves...When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics."
I'm reading a book right now called "Bondage Breaker" by Neil T. Anderson. I'm not saying that the book is 100% right, or even recommending it yet, just letting you know that its stirring my thoughts where this matter of the spiritual realm is concerned. In the first chapter, You Don't Have to Live in the Shadows, Neil gives a list of misconceptions that he believes kept him from successfully ministering in the lives of people under demonic influence.
1.Demons were active when Christ was on earth, but their activity has subsided today.
2. What the early church called demonic activity we now understand to be mental illness.
3.Some problems are psychological and some are spiritual.
4. Christians aren't subject to demon activity.
5. Demonic influence is only evident in extreme or violent behavior and gross sin.
6. Freedom from spiritual bondage is the result of a power encounter with demonic forces.
Do you find yourself believing some of the misconceptions on this list? What do you think?
I believe that the enemy can wage war on the church even as they gather to worship, and as children of God, we ought to be sending demons running by the authority of Christ (not our own power). I think that the effectiveness of the church as God's workers of redemption and hope has a lot to do with how we're doing in this battle against the forces of darkness, which Christ already won by the way, in case you didn't know. That's what the enemy doesn't want you to understand, the victory is already won. More on that later.
I leave you with this to meditate on. If demonic forces are not at work in this world, and are not trying to attack Christians, and if we don't have to worry about being equipped and actually doing intentional battle against the forces of darkness, why did the apostle Paul write this?
"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." (Ephesians 6:10-12)
"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." (Ephesians 6:10-12)
I hope to continue this train of thought by pondering what role worship can play in our struggle against spiritual forces of evil in the "heavenly realms". Until next time, don't even take my suggestion at the importance of this topic, but ask God to lead you in your thinking and action where this issue is concerned. Let's be more than conquerors in Christ against the darkness in this world, that the Light of the world might shine thru us and cause men to see the glory of God and be saved.
3 comments:
Hey,
Hmm... so I just kind of quickly skimmed this post... but thinking about evil has always left me with a lot of questions. So many people believe in ghosts, places being haunted, things that cannot being explained. How does all that fall into place? I've always said I don't believe in ghosts, but sometimes I wonder...
well first of all, ghosts is not the same concept, because people typically believe ghosts are the spirits of people that have died. Demons are different altogether, but I certainly believe that any real "ghost" encounter would be a demon encounter, so it would be okay to say that you don't believe in ghosts, that's my two cents anyways. But also keep in mind again, that what I'm trying to focus our attention on right now is not haunted stuff, but demons causing people to believe lies, to be in different kinds of bondage (influencing people to live by their flesh where sin resides, rather than by the Spirit), distracting us from God, keeping us occupied with stupid stuff rather than what God would have our lives focused on. again, refer to the scripture that I referenced and the different accounts in the gospels, its not a question of real or not. Its a question of how to deal with that reality.
I think a great example of what warfare in the spiritual realm looks like is in the book of Daniel. There, the angel of the Lord who appears to Daniel says:
10:12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."
The demon (Prince) was trying to prevent the truth from being made known. I believe that this is still the case and the goal of demons today: to prevent the spread of the true gospel.
This is what Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 10:
3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We 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.
Demons are out to corrupt the gospel and to deceive people from obedience in Christ.
As far as possession and mental illness go, I think that believers are protected (like Job) from direct interference by demons, and that mental illness is often caused by biological factors. It can also be caused by our own sinfulness (as in the case of anxiety, c.f. Philipians 4). But we are often tempted or deceived by demons, and thus we must be constantly vigilant to stay in the light of the truth!
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