| May 13, 2001 | Spiritual Warfare #3 |
I want to deal with two areas of spiritual warfare today. The
first one is how the enemy hides his activity away from us noticing
it, and at the same time he tries to corrupt us over to his way
of thinking. The second area I want to deal with is that the enemy
sometimes attacks us with mental, physical and emotional illness,
and we don't realize that sometimes those illnesses have a spiritual
cause.
First, lets talk about some of the ways in which the enemy attempts
to corrupt the unaware or careless Christian. The secular, non-Christian
world is probably a lot more aware of spiritual activity in general
than we Christians are. Go into a secular bookstore and they will
have large sections devoted to spirituality, and most of it is
non-Christian, occult, New Age, or something similar. The secular
world would not be giving the enemy all that attention unless
they were seeing results. The spiritual world is real, it is active,
it is functioning very well at what it does, and we as Christians
need to be aware of it.
We need to know that our enemy is out there, he is actively seeking
to destroy us, and he is also interested in keeping his presence
and intentions a secret. Or when he does make an appearance, he
tries to conceal what he really is.
If you were to go to a New Age conference or seminar, it would
not be surprising if they told you all about spirit guides,
and they would tell you how wonderful those beings are. They aren't
wonderful at all, they're demons calling themselves "spirit
guides." Did you know that those seminars will teach you
how to contact spirit guides? Did you know that they will teach
you how to have a spirit guide come and live inside you? They
will encourage you to invite your spirit guide to come in. And
here you thought that only Christians had altar calls...
Satan is a master at merchandising, he knows that if his followers
ran big ads on the radio that said; "You too can be
demon possessed in less that 3 hours for only $69.95, no reasonable
offer refused, trade-ins accepted! We won't be undersold."
Well, he probably wouldn't get too many takers. So they talk about
"spirit guides" instead and the yuppies go "Wow..."
In this series we have mentioned several ways that people can
come under affliction from the enemy. And by the way, I want to
emphasize again that for Christians, affliction is what we are
talking about. A Christian cannot be possessed by a demon, but
a demon can harass, afflict, or trouble a Christian. We have mentioned
that when Christians sin, we give the enemy a place to gain entrance,
a place to begin an attack against us. If we confess that sin,
tell God about it, repent of it, and turn from it, then that place
is gone, and with it, that particular opportunity for the enemy
to get a foothold in our lives. That is why we are told; "be
angry and sin not; don't let the sun go down on
your wrath." We don't want to give the enemy any legal ground
at all to start in on us.
What about that pet sin in our lives that we tolerate, that we
pamper, that we treat like it is really no big deal? That
is not smart. That opens us up to problems. The Bible
speaks of spiritual strongholds, a place where the enemy is entrenched,
a base of operations that he can proceed out from and really give
us a bad time. When we give the enemy a stronghold to start from,
and then don't repent, just keep on going in that same wrong direction,
the enemy strengthens his position, and weakens us in the process.
When this happens, then we see Christians, ourselves or others,
that just can't seem to get the victory in their spiritual lives,
and sometimes a spiritual stronghold is why.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 10:3. Paul tells us ; "For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co
10:4 (For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds;)" -and here he tells
us what form those strongholds can take, and how to get rid of
them-
Verse
5 " Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ;
2Co
10:6 And having
in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience
is fulfilled."
The phrase here about imaginations: that means reasonings
contrary to the truth of God. Logical arguments in our head that
emphasize what we humanly prefer over against what
God says, over against what truth and spiritual reality really
is. Paul is warning us that it is normal and natural for our minds
to get themselves puffed up in directions contrary to God, to
rationalize our own preferences over against the things of God.
How might this happen? What form might this take?
Compromise in our thought life. For instance, God gave sexual
love to husbands and wives as a blessing, but pornography is a
corruption of sexual love. I am aware that a few Christians get
caught in pornography, but how many more Christians get caught
up in other forms of mental influences, compromises that are not
as obviously corrupting as pornography?
I like computer games, I have liked them from the time Pong first
came out back in 1973. Well, things have changed a lot. Last week
I went into the Gold Mine at the mall, just to see what's popular
now. Realistic fights, graphic violence, death, blood and gore,
sexy women being slaughtered in hand to hand combat, with a heavy
dose of the demonic thrown in. Hmm. How could regular stimulation
with that sort of thing affect our thought life? Would this be
something that promotes godliness, or would it be something which
probably exalts itself against the knowledge of God?
Movies. Isn't it interesting how many movies have themes dealing
with the occult, violence, sex and death in combination? How do
these things stimulate our imagination? Do they promote godliness,
or trivialize godliness? When movies feature the things of God,
is God usually honored, or does God, Jesus Christ, and Christians
normally get made out to be a joke?
How about games? Ouija boards can be a direct opening for demonic
encounters, are there other games that might attract demonic attention?
Fantasy games that deal with occult and demonic activity, spell
casting, and magic? These games are remarkably popular.
Paul says that we are to cast down imaginations and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Would that
include such things as games and movies? How would they fit in
with this verse? Anything else? How about Harry Potter? How is
Harry Potter different from The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles
of Narnia? The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings
started from a Christian world view, and Christian concepts of
sin and redemption. The Harry Potter books start with a worldly
view of ethics, right and wrong, good and evil, and parents need
to explain those things to their children. We can't completely
insulate our kids from the world, but we can teach them discernment.
It is interesting how our society is gradually being realigned
toward things of this nature, things that exalt themselves against
the knowledge of God. And the more that it changes our society,
the more it tends to affect our thought life. It's kind of like
humidity on a rainy day, even when you close the doors and windows,
things still get damp. I guess the question I am asking is: how
much wetter will things get if you deliberately
go and open up all your doors and windows? Should we as Christians
entertain anything and every thing in our minds, or do we need
to sometimes close the house up? And I am not saying that Christians
should be closed minded, I am saying that we need to know
what the world is like, and keep the dehumidifier running,
or we might come down with a case of spiritual mildew...
Philippians 4:8 tells us: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, think on these things."
When our mind is filled with things that are contrary to God,
we assist the enemy, whether we realize it or not. When our thoughts
are contrary to the things of God, we are helping the enemy get
an advantage over us. When principalities and powers, wicked spiritual
creatures put ideas into our thoughts and imagination that are
based on demonic ideas and ways of doing things, and then
we entertain them in our thinking, what does that do for
our spiritual health? Is that good for us?
I get this mental image of a little monkey that sees a big crocodile
that looks asleep, so he goes up and pokes at it, and jumps back,
but nothing happens. So he pokes it some more, and nothing happens,
so he climbs on top of it, and he explores it, and gets all interested
in it until he finally works his way around to the front end.
Snap... Ooops... You don't need to act like a moth flying around
a flame, thinking that you won't get burned. Maybe you won't.
Maybe Christians can fool around with thoughts,
ideas and concepts from the demonic side of life and not get scorched,
but why would you want to? There is a war going on. Unsaved people
are dying and going to hell. We Christians are not as successful
in being about the Father's business as we might be. We need to
conform our thought life to the truth of the Word of God, and
humble our opinions before what the Bible says is true
and real. Once we get our thoughts, opinions, and concepts of
truth in line with what God says is true and real, then
we can capture the enemy, then we can take
revenge on the enemy and throw him out, like verse
6 says. But as long as we exalt our opinions and preferences
over what God says is true, the enemy strongholds in our lives
will probably stay there.
We also mentioned last week the bondage that families can come
under when there are generational sins in a family. When parents
live lives apart from God, the children become vulnerable. Children
that are born into families where the enemy has a spiritual strong
hold are more at risk than children that are not. When sin is
a regular part of a family, then the enemy is present. But that
doesn't mean that every problem is demonic in nature.
When we see children that have grown up in a spiritually hostile
environment, and they have problems, are those psychological problems,
or emotional problems, or spiritual problems? There is a very
easy way to find out. Treat it as a spiritual problem, and
see if you get immediate results. Psychology and psychiatry
heal very slowly when they heal at all. Jesus heals quickly and
noticeably. Jesus gives immediate and remarkable results.
This is not to say that sometimes Christians don't also need to
heal, and grow stronger, and mature, because they do, but why
not try the simple answer first? Some of us may have complicated
problems in our lives, and in some cases it takes a while to sort
everything out. Even Paul spent three years off in the wilderness
getting his head on straight after he got saved. But Jesus dealt
with him first, the growth and maturity came afterward.
Enemy action. With a devious enemy that tries to keep his hand
hidden as much as he can. Sometimes we forget that just because
you change the name of something, that doesn't change what it
is, or how it operates. Two weeks ago we mentioned what Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 12:7, how his thorn in the flesh was a
messenger of Satan, sent to buffet him and keep him humble.
Let me tell you a story related by a Christian counselor about
a young woman named Dee. Dee was a pastor's daughter, and she
developed some physical symptoms that were diagnosed as MS, multiple
sclerosis. Naturally she was terribly upset, and so were her parents,
facing the prospect of a lifetime with a very debilitating disease.
Dee happened to meet with this Christian counselor, they were talking, and he asked her when her problems started. She told him that she had first started having tingling sensations in her arms right after a special time of devotions that she had with the Lord. He asked her what was so special about those devotions. She told him that she was feeling sorry for herself because she was unable to measure up to the spiritual stature of her parents. She wanted God's power in her life like it was in her parents life, and she didn't feel like she was making it.
So on this particular day, she was reading 2 Corinthians 12, about Paul and his thorn in the flesh. Paul said that God's power was perfected in his weakness, and she figured that if Paul had more power in his life because of his thorn in the flesh, then she wanted one too. So she asked God to give her a thorn in the flesh like Paul's. Think this through, she asked for a thorn in the flesh like the one that Paul had. What was she asking for? A messenger of Satan. What is a messenger of Satan? A demon.
That was not wisdom. Paul never asked for that thorn,
he prayed three times for it to be taken away. The counselor recommended
to Dee that she renounce her request for a thorn in the flesh,
and pray that any influence of Satan in her life be removed. Almost
immediately she began to get better. Her symptoms went away. She
resumed her normal activities. She got well.
Most modern doctors and psychologists would say that Dee had a
psychosomatic illness. They would say that the problem was in
her head. If you were to suggest that her problem was entirely
spiritual, they would probably not really consider it. To me,
it's surprising that she did not think of it herself.
My point is, it would not surprise me if some of us might have a similar problem. We might have physical problems for a spiritual reason, and it never occurs to us that there is any relationship. Don't misunderstand me here, I do not want to be misunderstood. I do not want to give the impression that I think that all physical problems have a spiritual cause. Or that all physical problems are the result of enemy action. But if there is even one person in here that this applies to, and there may be more than that, who knows? I don't know, but if there is, then we need to see what God's Word says, learn about it, and get that victory.
Physical problems for spiritual reasons. Sometimes Christians
are troubled in certain mental or emotional areas of their lives,
and sometimes they can be troubled in physical areas. Those problems
can have physical, chemical or emotional causes. They can also
be for spiritual causes.
Christian counselors have discovered that there are certain patterns
of attack, areas where demons typically tend to attack Christians,
and also non-Christians. These include headaches that have no
physical reason for happening, dizziness, or generalized pain
throughout the body. An inability to study or read the Bible without
immediately wanting to fall asleep, or becoming mentally confused.
Nausea, being sick to the stomach for no apparent reason. Not
being able to sleep. Depression.
These things can certainly be caused by physical problems, but
these particular areas are frequent targets of enemy action. How
do you know if it's a natural illness or enemy action? Treat it
as enemy action, and bring God's light to shine on the enemy's
dark places. If it goes away, it was demonic. If nothing changes,
then it was simply physical. God can and does heal physically,
there is no question about that, but God is sovereign, He does
according to His own will, and none of us are guaranteed physical
healing every time we have a physical problem. But if it
is a spiritual problem, if the cause is demonic in nature, then
the body will heal itself when you get rid of the demon, every
time.
What other physical attacks are commonly used by the enemy? Christian
counselors are beginning to suspect that sometimes what is called
ADD or ADHD, hyperactivity, is sometimes nothing more than the
enemy messing with our kids. Think about it: the enemy wants to
make it impossible for you to study God's Word, how does he do
it? As soon as you open your Bible, he gets you to fall asleep,
right? Or you start to pray, and a thousand distracting things
come into your head. The game plan is to keep you from thinking
about God and His Word. That's you, parents; how does he do it
with your kid?
With your kid it's the same goal, opposite
tactic: instead of putting the kid to sleep, he pushes
the button that says "Giddyup go, yah mule"
and keeps the kid going 90 miles an hour, he accomplishes the
same thing, plus he gets to drive the parents crazy in the process.
Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that there is a
demon under every rock, and behind every tree, and behind every
behavior. Usually people have physical problems
for physical reasons. But not always. The enemy is a liar and
an imitator, and he can copycat physical problems for spiritual
reasons to distract and bring down the people of God. The enemy
will try to get to your kids through you, and he will try to get
to you through your kids. He hates the family, and is willing
to mess with your body as well as your head while he tries to
wreck your family.
Two very serious attacks that the enemy uses are somewhat similar
in their symptoms, one is an odd form of muscular sclerosis that
is not based on any obvious physical causes, but it seems to come
and go for no apparent reason. The other is a sort of chronic
fatigue syndrome. Once again, most people have these problems
for strictly physical reasons, but some of them are caused by
enemy action.
If we, or someone in our family is having a physical or emotional
problem, how do we know if it is spiritually based,
shouldn't we start out first by treating it medically or naturally?
Well, normally we do. The first thing we do is go
to the doctor, and then finally, as an afterthought, we pray about
it. "Oh Dear, it's come down to that...we're going to have
to pray about it" "What are things coming to?"
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
but what do we do? Check to see if this particular doctor is covered
by our HMO, right?
Look at the practical side: how long does it take to get a doctor's
appointment? Even if you go straight in, how long will you need
to sit in the waiting room with a bunch of sick people spreading
germs like a cropduster? Pray first, maybe God will
heal the situation while you're trying to find your car keys,
and then you won't need to go.
We have a problem dealing with the enemy of our souls because
we fail to recognize the problem. We live in a natural world,
but we have a spiritual enemy, and it is sometimes hard for us
to recognize him correctly. And that make it so much easier for
the enemy to attack us, because we don't realize that we are being
attacked. I had a member of this church tell me that on one occasion
this week, they and their child were both being
hit with the exact same lie in their thoughts at the same instant.
Trying to make them feel like failures, trying to make them feel
hopeless, give up their courage. It is a lie, it is warfare, and
the enemy wants you to believe a lie, and give up the fight.
He will make you discouraged, he will make you sick. Last Saturday
afternoon and evening and Sunday morning I felt terrible, and
I want to thank those that were praying for me. The enemy is not
happy with what we are doing here, and it is starting to show.
There is a war going on here, and even though the enemy has already
lost, he is still fighting back.
When we pray for each other, God uses that to strengthen us. I
don't know how He does that, or why He chooses to do things that
way, I just know it works. And if we know prayer works, and then
we fail to use the power of prayer that He gives us, that's being
dumb. We need to quit being dumb, and start praying more. And
we need to be praying more intelligently. I am not going to stand
here and tell you that we all need to start washing out all our
dirty laundry in church, but we do need to be more serious in
our prayer requests. It's OK to ask for prayer for your neighbors
brothers dog that has a hurt foot, but I question how many folks
in here will remember that request tomorrow. But if you tell the
church that the devil is wearing you out in some particular area
of your life, and you need help to keep from drowning, I'll be
a lot more likely to remember that, and everyone else will too.
When we take our prayer requests more seriously, our brothers
and sisters will more likely remember them seriously before the
Lord.
Let me give you an example: when I taught Sunday school in Georgia, I
had a class of teenaged girls. One of the girls was named Tracie,
she was a believer, unsaved parents, no father at home, and then
her mother committed suicide. Tracie joined the Army, she was
gone for a while, and then she came back and visited our class
to give us her testimony.
One of the things that she told us was how her mother had heard
voices in her head for months before she killed herself, telling
her that it was hopeless, that she was no good, that she should
just end it all. After the mother died, the voices came to Tracie,
telling her the same thing. What kept her going was her belief
that it was a lie, and that it was really demons, and not her
own thoughts. God gave her that truth, and she believed it, she
hung on to it, and she made it through.
But she had never told any of us. We prayed for her, we knew she
was having a hard time after her mother died, but she never told
us about the enemy trying to kill her. Trying to get her to kill
herself.
We would have understood it, and things might have gone a lot
easier for her if we had known better how to pray, and what to
pray about more specifically. But she never told us, and we didn't
pray with her about the oppression and attacks that she was under.
Back then, if didn't occur to us that suicide was primarily caused
by enemy action, we figured mental problems and depression. And
we didn't realize that mental problems and depression can also
be caused by enemy action. Demons putting lies in your head. Neither
did we realize that after the demons had succeeded in killing
the mother, that they would then go for the child. It was kind
of like the spy plane; there was an enemy out there all the time,
but nobody knew it. And so our prayers were not specific, and
maybe if they were more specific, they could have been more effective.
We all need to be more effective as Christian Soldiers. We need
to know where the enemy is, what he is trying to do, and how he
is trying to attack us. He will try to get us to think in his
thought patterns, to set our imagination against the things of
God, and conduct our thoughts contrary to being obedient to Christ.
He will attack us emotionally, physically, and psychologically.
Sometimes the symptoms are the same as we would expect from natural
causes, but they have spiritual causes.
We don't always know what the cause is. We can't always tell if
the cause is natural, or spiritual; enemy action. In such cases,
we are wise to ask God for healing, ask Him to show us if there
is a spiritual cause, and do not neglect going to
the doctor because it might just be a natural cause. To ask God
for spiritual relief while going to a physician at the same time
is not a lack of faith. God knows that we are frequently
unable to tell what we need, or why we need it. God knows that
we are spiritually blinded from what He created us to know, and
we can't always tell what we need.
But it is never a waste of time to seek Him first. If there is
a spiritual cause, then you will need a spiritual healing anyway.
If there is a natural cause, then God may graciously provide one,
and if not, you haven't lost anything, not even any time; you
had to change your shoes and get the car keys anyway.
Finally, we need to get more serious in our prayer life. God uses
prayer. He uses it to hinder the enemy and strengthen His people.
1 Corinthians 1:27 tells us: "God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which are
mighty;" That's what happens when we pray intelligently and
seriously. Then the foolish Christians at this old green building
on Exeter Lane confound the wisdom of the world, and then the
weak Christians in this beat up old building confound the principalities
and powers that oppose the things of God.
And then He gets all the glory, and we get to know Him better,
and follow His Son closer. Can we make that our priority this
week? I hope so.