I am constrained at this point by the Spirit of God to bring forth another principle of God, which affects us all.
Whenever God decides to speak to us through whomsoever He chooses, (Lk. 10:16) He gives us an OPPORTUNITY TO SEE our life, our deeds and ourselves as He sees us. Also, He gives us an OPPORTUNITY TO DO what He judges as necessary for us at that time. We simply must understand that such an opportunity may never come back again! If we miss it, we may literally “miss the boat”.
Every POTENTIAL in our Salvation (see more later on) is for us an OPPORTUNITY to realize it, reach for it and obtain it. Every time God speaks to us through a spoken or written Word, through dreams or by any other means, it is an opportunity to reach for and obtain that particular potential of our Salvation. Every missed opportunity (responding to His Word) will judge us in the last day. (Jn. 12:47,48; 13:20)
j2) All the above important and vital problems have their spiritual roots (or bunkers) established by the powers of evil and darkness in our souls. They are very, very, very deeply rooted! They were built and kept reinforced in our soul through our own sins and trespasses and offences, AND through those done by our parents, grandparents and other relatives back to our fourth generation! (Ex. 20:5) Here we talk about the Scriptural “generation cords” (see excellent book “Generation Cords and their Effects on You[11]” by brother John Adejoro-Oluwa).
j3) THESE POWERS OF EVIL AND DARKNESS WILL NOT LEAVE YOU UPON YOUR REQUEST! THEY WILL NEVER LEAVE THEIR BUNKERS NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WISH OR TRY TO “TALK THEM INTO IT”. THEY WILL ONLY BE UPROOTED AND DISPLACED BY A SPIRITUAL FORCE AND AUTHORITY, WHICH IS SUPERIOR TO THEIR OWN!
We either have that power and authority ourselves (Lk. 9:1) or have to intercede before God to deliver us Himself or by His servants. If you are unable to believe the above fact, then you are yet ignorant of Satan’s devices, his nature and his advantages over you (2Cor. 2:11) all of which were permitted him by God! And if you are ignorant of Satan’s devices, then how can you resist them or deal with them? You cannot. You are then a helpless victim “trying to do your best” but without any success.
j4) THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF BATTLES AND TWO TYPES OF DELIVERANCES:
One is concerned with “casting out devils” that dwell in man. (Mt. 8:16; 8:31; 10:7,8; 12:28// Mk.1:34, etc.) Man is bound and ruled by them and is influenced to do what they direct him to do. This kind of deliverance may take but a moment. The evil spirit is a “tenant” in our soul. It dwells there and is sometimes “discovered” only by the Lord’s dealings with us. The true believer IS NOT POSSESSED by any evil spirit, he is possessed by the Lord, but he IS OPPRESSED by that evil spirit! Please, do understand this very important distinction.
The other one is concerned with “dying to our old evil nature” which is in us and will likewise not leave us upon our request! This deliverance may take the rest of our earthly life. It is a slow process as expressed in Is. 28:10. There are no “tenants” in our soul to be cast out. Our old sinful nature cannot be cast out of us but must be destroyed in a progressive dying.
k) I may have already mentioned that I found many pagans more friendly, honest and pleasant to deal with than many Christians. The main opposition to my ministry, in fact, comes from Christians and many of their leaders and not from the world! And I am not the only one who found this out. Brother Austin-Sparks writes the same thing in his other excellent book “The Recovering of the Lord’s Testimony in Fullness[17]” (page 89) where he states:
“Is it not strange that, when you are bent upon the whole counsel and purpose of God, you find your main opposition from Christians and Christian leaders, far more than from the world?”
Brother Arthur Pink wrote a letter on August 19, 1934 where he declares the following:
“My greatest grief today is that, after moving so much from place to place, travelling entirely around the world, I do not know of a single Christian (apart from my dear wife) who gives the slightest real promise of becoming a prevailing intercessor before God. Numbers I had hoped might become so, but my hopes have been dashed to the ground, until at times I feel like burying myself in some isolated retreat, where I would never meet another Christian on earth again. They are all like those referred to in Ezekiel 33:31-33.”(see “Letters of Arthur W. Pink[13]”, page 43).
It almost looks like man must become a born-again Christian, baptized in water in order to “lose” a great part of his clear mind, logic, common sense, pleasantness, diligence, friendliness, openness and any desire to seek truth, righteousness or justice (all credit to the exceptions). He may easily become a religious robot devoid of many good senses and instincts, which he could have had before. He starts a “new” religious road, which in spiritual value may be just as worthless as his old pagan road. Outwardly it may look different, but it leads to the same pit. He may still be full of restless energy of his flesh, but now it is diverted into a new religious channel and serves different idols – religious idols – but not Christ. He may look very religious but the Living Christ, Who came into his spirit is nowhere to be found or touched. Brother Austin-Sparks further writes: “I sometimes wonder if religion is not God’s greatest enemy in this world.” (“The Battle for Life[3]”, page 47)
I myself was wondering for a long time why is this so and whether this is not just an illusion. Well, it stopped being an illusion after the Lord shed His Light on this fact also. As all the other spiritual mysteries, this also may sound incredible. We just have to get used to a simple fact that whatever is caused or done by spiritual powers, which are unseen and undetectable to our human physical senses and understanding, all their action may be considered incredible. Listen…
When a pagan believes and is born-again by the Spirit of the Lord, the kingdom of evil and darkness in his soul “gets a notice” that there is a “new Tenant at his border” who is very dangerous to the kingdom. Satan knows well that he cannot “play” with this new “Tenant” or underestimate Him because that Tenant had already defeated Satan and his powers through Man-Jesus Christ. Hence, Satan has no chances against any man-landlord with such a Tenant – EXCEPT ONE! What is that chance?
MAN – THE LANDLORD, TAKES ALL THE DECISIONS AND NOT THE TENANT! HELLO? ARE YOU TRULY WITH ME?
I AM AGAIN CONSTRAINED BY THE MOST HOLY SPIRIT TO REPEAT IT: MAN TAKES ALL THE DECISIONS CONCERNING HIS SALVATION AND ALL ITS POTENTIAL – NOT GOD! GOD HAS SECURED OUR FULL SALVATION AND PRESENTED IT TO ALL MEN (Tit. 2:11// Col. 1:23). HE THEN DRAWS MEN TO THAT SALVATION – TO JESUS (Jn. 6:44), AND THEN GUIDES THOSE THAT BELIEVED TO ALL TRUTH AS WELL AS TO ALL THE RIGHT DECISIONS-JUDGMENTS. (Jn. 16:13// Ps. 25:8-10)
GOD ALSO STRENGTHENS THEM TO TAKE AND DO THE RIGHT DECISIONS (Phil. 4:13), BUT GOD WILL NEVER TAKE THEIR DECISIONS FOR THEM!
Satan’s strategy is simple but very effective: Deceive the man so that he would take wrong decisions! He must be separated from the Tenant at all costs, never allowed to contact Him, fellowship with Him, ask Him for help and get it. So, the man would start assuming, presuming, speculating, reasoning and not believing and following what God plainly tells him in His Word! The Tenant (Holy Spirit) has thus “no chance” to get into the believer’s heart, mind and will and start the war against Satan and his kingdom in that soul where Satan’s kingdom dwells and rules.
OUR BORN-AGAIN EXPERIENCE DID NOT DESTROY ONE BIT OF OUR “FLESH”, OLD SINFUL NATURE. OUR FLESH REMAINS THE SAME AS IT WAS WHEN WE WERE PAGANS. THE FLESH IN PAGANS AND CARNAL CHRISTIANS IS EXACTLY THE SAME! ITS DESTRUCTION WAITS ON THE LORD’S SPIRIT TO ENTER OUR HEART AND SOUL AND GET OUR CONSENT TO DESTROY IT.
If the new believer is satisfied with “this form of fleshly religion”, Satan is also satisfied and will not spend more of his energy and resources on that man. Such a believer is no danger to Satan’s kingdom inside or outside of his soul. In the meantime though, the believer may have lost a good part of his common sense, logic, diligence, even reasoning powers, which were originally given to him by God. He has no desire to search, enquire or seek the Lord, His Truth, Righteousness, Judgment or the Kingdom of God. Ask any such Christian how he is “seeking the Kingdom of God” (Mt. 6:33), and he will look at you as if you fell from Mars!
Such a soulish believer may just come to “his church”, sit down or step behind the pulpit with a thick Bible having no idea what is happening in the spiritual world in him, or around him!
THAT IS ALSO THE REASON why such Christians are “less wiser” than pagans, even in financial matters. (Lk. 16:8) They are less friendly, less open and less pleasant to deal with but more hypocritical. Their religion thus becomes an enemy of God (as earlier quoted from brother Austin-Sparks).
The most important fact of this subject is that every new believer after his water baptism and after he receives the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38) BEGINS TO DRAW THE ATTENTION OF HELL! The powers of darkness in him seek to NEUTRALIZE HIM AND STRENGTHEN THEIR DEFENSIVE POSITIONS IN HIS SOUL… AND THAT, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
The believer may retain his testimony of being saved, he may retain his soulish joy and happiness as well as his zeal to “do something for the Lord”. But he also retains the kingdom of darkness in his soul – AND HE IS NOT AWARE OF IT! Nobody tells him this, you see? And that evil kingdom is strengthened in him BECAUSE OF THE NEW TENANT! So, that is the true reason why a vast majority of believers become WORSE IN THEIR SOUL after their Redemption than they were before. Can you ponder this fact and see its consequences on the spiritual reality of our Christianity?
ARE YOU ABLE TO SEE THAT BY NEGLECTING THE BITTER TRUTHS OF THE WORD, WE ALL HAVE A TOTALLY DISTORTED PICTURE OF GOD HIMSELF AND OF HIS WORD AND OF OUR SALVATION AND OF ALL SPIRITUAL REALITIES?
If you think I am dreaming, look at the history of wars in this world. Every time a king brought a powerful force to the border of another kingdom, the other king began to mobilize his army immediately, strengthen his fortifications and do everything to defend his kingdom, including all the necessary steps to deceive his enemy! Is that true? Yes or no? You should be honest at least to yourselves.
Well, where do we stand here? Our physical world is but a reflection of the spiritual world, so why are we surprised when our war with the kingdom of Satan is similar? Why are we surprised whenever the Lord shows us that we are deceived? This should be something normal for us, in fact, something to be expected rather than an exception.
EVERY CHRISTIAN IS DECEIVED. IT IS JUST A MATTER OF IN WHICH AREA OF SPIRITUAL REALITIES AND TO WHAT DEPTH. ARE YOU ABLE TO BELIEVE THIS SIMPLE SPIRITUAL FACT?
I will shock you even more just by saying publicly that even now, I can still be deceived through some brethren whom I have known for many (10-30) years – as their elder! I do not say that they do it to me purposely, but I am sometimes shocked what the Lord can “pull” out of their hearts so that even they themselves are shocked, amazed and in disbelief!
Yes, we are amazed, even shocked. But the Lord is showing us that we should not be. Again, His reason is simple: Look at your physical world. Nothing is built in one day but slowly, step-by-step. World War II was not finished one day after the “turn of the tide” (see p. 152), but it took many months to slowly dislodge the enemy army from every occupied area. So it is in the spiritual world and spiritual war. The sinful nature must be fought and dislodged in every area of our soul, step-by-step. (Is. 28:10)
It is then very easy to be shocked should the Lord lead us to another (usually deeper) repentance after some days, weeks or even years of “peace and sweet self-deception” that we are now perfect and there is “nothing to repent of”!
THE GREATEST DECEPTION THAT I KNOW OF AS EXISTING IN THIS WORLD IS THE ONE WHENEVER MAN THINKS OR BELIEVES THAT HE CANNOT BE DECEIVED ANY MORE!
l) Many, many believers do not believe God’s Word or His Judgments because they “do not understand them”. As already said before, they thus put all of Christianity upside down! Our calling and duty is not to understand the Word by our brains but to believe and obey It in our heart! Children are called to believe and obey their parents whether they understand them, or not.
THESE BELIEVERS MAKE THE WORD OF GOD TO BOW DOWN TO THEIR INTELLECT RATHER THAN MAKING THEIR INTELLECT TO BOW DOWN TO THE WORD OF GOD – THEIR CREATOR! SO, MAN IS WISER THAN GOD! HELLO???
This indicates great pride, self-will, self-satisfaction, self-interests, in short, selfishness. The reason is that the Word conflicts with their own opinions, persuasions, judgments and lusts of their flesh! They would rather follow psychologists or other “great men” and neglect the Word of God Almighty! They have no clue that meekness is flexibility, pliability, teachability of the spirit and heart and that this is an important part of the Character of Christ (Mt. 11:29// Heb. 5:8), which we must acquire.
Their spirit and heart are haughty, stony, stubborn and they refuse everything that does not satisfy them – including the Word of the Almighty God. They refuse the Word whether it is preached to them or delivered to them by the brother whom the Lord sends for that purpose. Instead of receiving the brother and his message or at least verifying it with the Word of God, they accuse him or ignore him or mistreat him or judge him unrighteously. (Mt. 10:40) And they never show him any specific error or fault or reason why they are doing this to him! I do wonder how they plan to justify or excuse their deeds when they stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. (Rom. 14:10) They live and act as if the Judgment Seat of Christ did not exist or as if the day of their appearance before the Son of God were never to come.
Speaking about flexibility, we all have to learn a great lesson, namely, that our natural tendency is to keep running in our old rut and never change our direction. But this is not the way of Our God. The way of the Spirit, and of him born of the Spirit, is described as the way of the wind and we cannot tell from where it blows and where it goes. (Jn. 3:8) God also tells us plainly that we should not consider old things (ways) or remember them because “I will do a new thing;” (Is. 43:18,19a) What does it mean for us practically?
I believe that though God will never change any of His Truths or Principles, His Will and Word, yet, He changes His methods how to achieve His Will. When God’s servant meets an obstacle, for example, humans opposing Him, His Spirit may lead His servant to wisely bypass or avoid them (Mt. 10:16) or make a way right through them. (Is. 43:16) If believers, therefore, resist God and His true servant, He may pass them by and leave them to their own ways and devices or He may “break their resistance”, in which case it would be far better for them.
So, if God starts speaking to you through someone or something, which He may have ‘never’ done to you before, He may just be doing a new thing and you should recognize it. You should not reject it outright just because it “never happened to you before” but pause and ponder it.
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To be continued next week in part 4
brother Hanola
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