KNOW YOUR ENEMY, Part 2
One member in our group said, “Righteous people go to Church but it doesn’t make you righteous to go to Church. A person of faith will do good works, but good works will not earn your way into heaven.” Even today in the church there are serious debates about works and the law and grace. Satan is happy to have dissention in the ranks. But we must have our heart come into cooperation with God and do our works based on love of God and God’s glory. Any other way leads to pride in the Body of Christ.
All of us at some time or another struggle with demons. Demonic activity does occur in the Church and among people. The devil wants to take us out mentally, physically, and emotionally. Pastor Don asked us this question, “Why is it when you are under spiritual attack that many get the idea to leave the Church.” It is as if God is separating the person out for the slaughter, and it is at the time of demonic attack that we most need the Church. (By church we are talking about the people and pastors and others in the Body of Christ, not the institution of the Church. This is about relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and relationship among fellow believers.)
One sign of demonic oppression is that when we are facing a problem such as a depression, we are looking to put the blame on someone else or some outside situation. Not every problem we have or situation we have is demonic oppression, we are not to be looking for demons under every rock. But there are times when your day starts perfectly, the sun is shining, and out of seemingly nowhere a spirit of depression descends. Or you are doing very well, and perhaps before something important, wars break out among your kids, when usually they are peace loving. If a mood, sickness, seems to come from left field, then there is a chance it could be demonic oppression.
Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit
Hebrews 6:4-6 talks about the subject of the Blaspheme of the Holy Spirit: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
This is a topic that has many people wondering what are the conditions to do this. (Heather’s note: If you are worried about Blaspheming the Holy Spirit it is a good indication that you are not, because if you were, you would not care whether or not you were). There are five conditions that are necessary to qualify for this and all five must be present.
1. You must be enlightened about the total truth about Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit.
2. You must have tasted of the Heavenly gift (Jesus).
3. You must have received the Holy Spirit and have walked in the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. You must realize the Word of God, both Written and Spoken is active in your life, and that you see the fruit of your studies.
5. You have the powers of the age to come (gift of prophesy), you must have received prophesy and understand that Jesus is the source of prophesy.
It is a rare person who is mature in all of these areas. Most of us backslide in our walks with God, but this is a person who is a mature Christian, who operates in the powers of the Holy Spirit, knows Jesus, and has walked long in the path of Christianity, and they deliberately, blatantly turn their backs on Jesus, and reject salvation. Coldly, calculatedly. This would not pertain to a person who is hurting say from the death of a loved one who speaks indiscrete words, but a person who embraces other gods, be it sex, idols, other religions, and rejects Jesus. (I elaborated from memory here, any errors in the above is my error).
One Biblical example of the above would be Judas when He betrayed Christ. He had known Jesus, worked in the Power of the Holy Spirit when he was sent out to do healings with the apostles, he knew the Word of God and had received the teachings of Jesus, yet He rejected Jesus and turned traitor to Jesus.
Moses would not have qualified, he was punished by not being able to enter the Promised land, but Moses still had his love of God and his repentance for the mistake he made.
When God gets angry in the Bible in every case that we know, He sits down. (Heather’s note, I pray that God never has to sit down in regard to any action on my part).
Back to satan. The devil is not original. He copies the things of God in his kingdom. So even satan has a hierarchy in his kingdom similar to God’s. But unlike in God’s kingdom, satan has much more rebellion in his ranks.
Jude 6 (For those who may not know, Jude has only one chapter, so the 6 refers to the verse). And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day:
The angels who stayed with God are in a hierarchy under the monarchy of God. What did the angels do that made God decide to put them in chains, where they will remain until the last days in Revelation, to be released for a short period of time, led by Abaddon?
Jude 7-9 gives us a picture of that. as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
(Heather’s note, notice that Michael left rebuking in God’s hand, so should we.) But what the above verses imply is that the angels who were fallen committed sexual immorality with mankind on the earth.
Next installment we will go back to the Old Testament and see places where that occurred.
Guess who needs the computer.
Heather
