Thursday, July 7

Thursday

C.S. Lewis writes about two extremes to avoid when dealing with spiritual forces of evil, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.“ (The Screwtape Letters)

I don’t know about you, but I think that most of the people in our comfortable culture fall into the first kind of error.  Most people today just don’t believe in or think about demons, devils, or spiritual forces at all.  I think this is one of Satan’s best weapons, his ability to keep people from believing in him.  After all, if you don’t believe in something, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about it and that much more vulnerable to it (if it really were real).

Many years ago I had the opportunity to go to Russia with a small group of men from our church.  Our purpose was to help our sister church, “Transfiguration Baptist Church of Samara Russia”, celebrate their 100^th birthday, the church had survived for a century and they had outlasted communism!  Among the many wonderful experiences on that trip was the time I spent praying with the senior pastor of that church, Pastor Victor.  Pastor Victor prayed everywhere and for everything.  He would stop whatever he was doing (and whatever you were doing) and begin to pray regardless of the situation.  I noticed that just about every time Pastor Victor prayed, he would pray about defeating the Devil, or stopping the work of demons, etc.  He prayed against the forces of Satan in a nearby gypsy community where they were trying to plant a new church.  He prayed to bind the Devil from spreading the evil disease of cancer in a dying woman’s body.  He prayed against the Satanic forces at work in the Russian government and in the Russian Orthodox church. 

It seemed like everything was a spiritual battle to him.  Now, I want you to know that I believe in the power of prayer and in the reality of spiritual forces in the world, but I must admit that at the time I was a little uncomfortable with all of the talk about spiritual warfare, and even thinking to myself that Victor was just a little over the top with the whole Devil thing.  But the truth was that Victor understood something that I did not (at least not yet).  He had a perspective that I lacked, a perspective much closer to that of the authors of the New Testament. Victor had been a pastor in a communist country for over 20 years.  He had led his church through oppression and darkness that most of us in the comfortable suburbs of America cannot even imagine.  For him, everything was a spiritual battle.  In his view, the Christian life was a very real battle between good and evil, darkness and light. 

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 6:12

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.   – 1 Peter 5:8

We do have a very real enemy!  But it is not the liberals or the conservatives.  It is not the democrats or the republicans.  It is not the educational system, the tax code, the federal government or the economy.  Our enemy is the ancient enemy of God – the Devil himself.

 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.  – 1 Corinthians 15:57-58

Jeff Frazier