“Breaking Loose…”
I heard a Preacher say once: “When all Heaven breaks loose, All hell will break loose right beside it!” For the past 4 weeks we have focused our attention on Heaven to encourage sincere Christ-Followers to keep “running their race;” or “fighting the good fight.” The idea is simple — if we keep our “perspectives” focused on Heaven, it should give us the energy to OVERCOME all the setbacks of this earth.
The reality aspect we have to acknowledge is that, the more we strive to think about our Heavenly home, the more intense our attacks from the devil become. As God brought this to my attention last week, I started reading and studying in 1 John 4:1-6 where we are instructed to “Test the Spirits!” The Sermon this past Sunday dealt with the things we need to examine to determine which “Spirit” is controlling our churches.
When you “Test the spirits” it becomes more apparent “who” is at the root of so many devastating situations in today’s Evangelical Church! The Church of Jesus Christ is under seige by the devil and his supporting cast (i.e. demons). Every time we surge forward in reaching people or administering the grace of God to others, we find ourselves ‘putting out fires’ or trying to clean-up yet another mess made by misdirected participants in the church.
This week I am going to highlight some of these “spirits” that need to be tested in the life of our churches to determine who is actually in control – the Lord Jesus or his arch enemy, the devil. It is frightening to see how much control Our Lord’s enemy actually has over the life of many N.T. churches. And, what is more disheartening is to consider how powerless we think we are to resisit his attacks. Many of his tactics are so well disguised that to expose them as “works of Satan” sounds like alarmist or fanatical rhetoric.
What we have forgotten is that we are in a WAR! Things are not going to get better here on this planet — not now or ever. Even good people get “sidetracked” and become more useful to the devil than we are to Christ Jesus! Even the most devout Disciple of all, the Apostle Peter, was used by Satan to try and prevent Jesus from accomplishing His mission. (cf. Matt.16:21-23) This makes me stop and think about my own life. Am I an asset or a liability to the work of God’s Kingdom? Do I manifest activity led by the “spirit of falsehood” or the “Spirit of truth?” How can I know the difference? In the next few posts I am going to highlight some of the “spirits” that we can TEST to expose the work or our Lord’s enemy and to enhance the work of our One and Only God! Stay tuned…
Wow. Great post… ots to think about. Can’t wait to read what’s to come. Preach it, brother.
It is so affirming to hear you refer to these times as “War.” The Lord knows there are persons today in positions of power who are ignoring God either through ignorance, complacency or lack of interest and we must pray for them.. that is clear. We have a speaker, a Father John Corapi who speaks of warfare and the ways we can help . He is on the internet and worth listening to as he also is in a leadership role as you are. You are both able to influence many through grace and the Holy Spirit. May God continue to bless you and the wonderful work you do are doing and will continue to do in His Name.
Romans 1:11-12. We realize this is a latent response to your posting!!
Pat and Jim Donlevy