Recovered In Christ

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is a  prayer today that came from one of my closest friends – the most solid Christian man I know, Chris P.

Lord,

Please equip me so that I can resist all temptation from evil. Enable me to be prepared before temptation, before I enter into my own thoughts, before the earth has its way with me. Before I accept the advice from the world, that I am in, but not a part of, so that I see the enemy’s tactics from the moment they start to manifest. Give me the strength to resist entertaining temptation for even a second, so that I can still turn to you while there is still time, so that I can endure it. Give me the passion that I need to have for your word. Help me to memorize your word so that it is in every fiber of my heart, so I can shout it out loud when I am awake and meditate on it when I sleep. Lord show me that to protect my heart and soul, I need you, desperately.

Lord – I do not want to give birth to my sin, because when I do it’s too late to turn back, and I fall without protection, back into the flesh. Father, I so long to be with you, but it is not my time yet. More than anything I want your will to be done, not mine. But often I want you to take away my suffering and my pain, more than I want your blessings. Lord – your glory is my only desire, so help me to find real believers, so that we can be an army of servants for your kingdom – Lord, you have said that if any two of us on earth agree about anything we ask for, it will be done for us – by you. You are the father of all good things, the alpha and the omega, I lay on my face and worship you my loving father and as I fear and love you my God – how sweet it is to know that you will conquer all that oppose you. Use me as you see fit my Lord, to open up the eyes and the hearts of those that are still immersed in the dark.

Your loving servant,

Chris

Amen!

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!! Here is my prayer today that came from meditating on the Bible!

Saturday, March 17th, 2012

“In the war upon the powers of darkness, prayer is the primary and mightiest weapon, both in aggressive war upon them and their works; in the deliverance of men from their power; and against them as a hierarchy of powers opposed to Christ and His Church.” –Jessie Penn-Lewis

Dear God, 
Teach us how to pray. Reveal to us what to pray. Help us not to give up on prayer, not to listen to the words of the Enemy who says that some prayer goes unheard or unanswered by you. Give us the courage and willingness to simply pray at all times and in all things. Thank you Jesus that you are our prayer leader – you are our High Priest. Let every person reading this believe your prayer and be quickened by your living words:

The High Priestly Prayer

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.

I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify themin the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctifiedin truth.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Amen.

Spiritual Progress without Jesus Christ is like pumping weights on death row.

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Friday, March 16th, 2012

CHAPTER 2.
The Satanic confederacy of wicked spirits.

A perspective view of the ages covered by the history in Bible records, shows that the rise and fall in spiritual power of the people of God, was marked by the recognition of the existence of the demoniacal hosts of evil. When the Church of God in the old and new dispensations was at the highest point of spiritual power, the leaders recognized, and drastically dealt with, the invisible forces of Satan; and when at the lowest they were ignored, or allowed to have free course among the people.

GOD LEGISLATING FOR DANGERS FROM EVIL SPIRITS

The reality of the existence of wicked spirits by whom Satan, their prince, carried out his work in the fallen world of men, cannot be more strongly proved, than by the fact that the statutes given by Jehovah to Moses in the fiery mount, embodied stringent measures for dealing with the attempts of evil spirit beings to find entry to the people of God. Moses was instructed by Jehovah to keep the camp of Israel free from their inroads, by the drastic penalty of death for all who had dealings with them. The very fact of Jehovah thus giving statutes in connection with such a subject, and the extreme penalty enforced for disobedience to His law, shows in itself (1) the existence of evil spirits, (2) their wickedness, (3) their ability to communicate with, and influence human beings, and (4) the necessity for uncompromising hostility to them, and their works. God would not legislate for dangers which had no real existence, nor would He command the extreme penalty of death, if the contact of the people with evil spirit beings of the unseen world, did not necessitate such drastic dealing.

The severity of the penalty obviously implies, also, that the leaders of Israel must have been given acute “discerning of spirits,” so sure and so clear, that they could have no doubt in deciding cases brought before them.

Whilst Moses and Joshua lived, and enforced the strong measures decreed by God to keep His people free from the inroads of Satanic power, Israel remained in allegiance to God, at the highest point of its history; but when these leaders died, the nation sank into darkness, brought about by evil spirit powers, drawing the people into idolatry and sin; the condition of the nation in after years, rising and falling (see Judges 2: 19, 1 Kings 14: 22-24; compare 2 Chron. 33: 2-5, 34: 2-7) into (1) allegiance to God, or (2) idolatrous worship of idols, and all the sins resulting from the substitution of the worship of Satan–which idolatry really meant–in the place of Jehovah.

When the new dispensation opens with the advent of Christ, we find Him–the God-Man–recognising the existence of the Satanic powers of evil, and manifesting uncompromising hostility toward them, and their works–Moses in the Old Testament, Christ in the New. Moses, the man who knew God face to face. Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, sent from God to the world of men. Each recognizing the existence of Satan and the evil spirit beings; each drastically dealing with them as entering and possessing men, and each waging war against them, as actively opposed to God.

Taking a perspective view, from the time of Christ on throughout the early history of the Church, up to the giving of the Apocalypse, and the death of the Apostle John, the manifested power of God wrought (in varying degrees) among His people, and the leaders recognized and dealt with the spirits of evil–a period corresponding to the Mosaic period in the old dispensation.

THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Then the forces of darkness gained, and, with intermittent intervals and exceptions, the Church of Christ sank down under their power, until, in the darkest hour, which we call the Middle Ages, all the sins having their rise through the deceptive workings of the evil spirits of Satan, were as rife as in the time of Moses, when he wrote by the command of God, “There shall not be found with thee . . one that useth divination, or that practiseth augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer” (Deut. 18: 10-11).

Now, at the close of the dispensation, and on the eve of the millennial age, the Church of Christ will again arise, and reach God’s purposed power, only when the leaders recognize, as Moses did in the Old Testament Church, and Christ and His apostles did in the New, the existence of evil spirit powers of darkness, and take towards them and their works, the same uncompromising attitude of hostility, and aggressive warfare.

THE CHURCH OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Why the Church in the twentieth century has not recognized the existence, and workings, of evil supernatural forces, can only be attributed to its low condition of spiritual life and power. Even at the present time, when the existence of evil spirits is recognized by the heathen, it is generally looked upon by the missionary as “superstition” and ignorance; whereas the ignorance is often on the part of the missionary, who is blinded by the prince of the power of the air to the revelation given in the Scriptures, concerning the Satanic powers.

The “ignorance” on the part of the heathen is in their propitiatory attitude to evil spirits, because of their ignorance of the gospel message of a Deliverer and a Saviour sent to “proclaim release to the captives” (Luke 4: 18), and Who, when He was on earth, went about healing all who were “oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10: 38), and sent His messengers to open the eyes of the bound ones, that they might “turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26: 18).

If missionaries to the heathen recognized the existence of evil spirits, and that the darkness in heathen lands was caused by the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2: 2; 4: 18 ; 1 John 5: 19; 2 Cor. 4: 4), and proclaimed to the heathen the message of deliverance from the evil hosts, they know so well to be real, and malignant, foes; as well as remission of sin, and victory over sin through the atoning sacrifice of Calvary; a vast change would come over the mission field in a few brief years.

But the Holy Spirit is already at work, opening the eyes of the people of God, and many of the leaders in the Church are beginning to recognize the real existence of Satanic powers, and are seeking to know how to discern their workings, and how to deal with them in the power of God. (Jessie Penn Lewis; War On The Saints, Chapter 2)

Dear God, thank you for opening our eyes so that we could turn from darkness to light, so that we could turn from the power of satan to you! Thank you that we did not settle for half truths, that you have given us a humble and obedient spirit to receive the gospel in its fullness. Help us to continue in this humble spirit and make us careful not to slip in conceit of our own knowledge and efforts. We seek to know how to discern the workings of evil spirits and how to deal with them in the power of God. We ask for this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Yes I have a hatred. I hate sin. But I do not hate the one committing the sin.

There is a perfect division between the two. That only the Holiness of God can maintain.

Without His Spirit, the lines begin to blur.

You will start to hate your neighbor, your “enemy” or yourself.

Or in your human attempt at compassion you will begin to tolerate the sin.

Only the Holy Spirit of God can keep your hatred of sin pure. Free from the corrupting influence of Satan and Self.

Only His Spirit can enable you to love and bless your most vilest human enemies of truth – without compromising your total and absolute rejection of their sin.

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!!

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Dear God, thank you so much for keeping it real with me! Thank you God for teaching me how to get real and stay real with you. Thank you for giving me a heart and soul that seeks truth – like a plant drawn to sunlight, is my soul drawn to truth. Whatever it has cost me to come into this truth, is nothing compared to what it cost you. Thank you that you made me and keep me willing to KNOW the truth, really know it. All of Satan’s lies, all of the world’s illusions and all of my delusions are exposed simply by the dawning of light on my mind – Light that can only come from you. In you there is no darkess, in you discerning what is good and evil, what is right and wrong, is made simple and easy. As simple as seeing the road ahead on a bright sunny day. Thank you that I was willing to put down my candlelight and my flares, in order to come to you – The Father of ALL Light. I love you. Amen.

THE CULMINATION OF THE FLOOD TIDE OF DECEIVING SPIRITS SHOWN IN 2 THESS. 2

The culmination of the flood tide of these deceiving spirits sweeping upon the Church, is described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians, where he speaks of the manifestation of one, who will, eventually, have so deceived Christendom as to have gained an entrance into the very sanctuary of God; so that “he sitteth in the sanctuary of God, setting himself forth as God . . . ” The “presence” of this one being a “Presence” like God, and yet “according to the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and wonders, of falsehood, and with all deceit . .” (2 Thess. 2: 9, 10, R.V. See margin R.V.).

Confirmation of the Lord’s words recorded by Matthew, is found in the revelation given by Him to John, on Patmos, that at the close of the age, the main weapon used by the deceiver for obtaining power over the people of the earth, will be supernatural signs from heaven, when a counterfeit “lamb” will do “great signs,” and even “make fire come down out of heaven” to deceive the dwellers on the earth, and thereby exercise such control over the whole world, that “no man shall be able to buy or sell, save he that hath the mark of the beast” (Rev. 13:11-17). Through this supernatural deception, the full purpose of the deceiving hierarchy of Satan, thus reaches its consummation, in the foretold world-wide authority.

Deception of the world with deepening darkness; deception of the Church through “teachings,” and “manifestations,” will reach the highest flood-tide climax at the close of the age.

THE SPECIAL WARNING TO THE CHURCH BY THE WRITER OF THE APOCALYPSE

It is striking to note that the Apostle who was chosen to transmit the Apocalypse to the Church, in preparation for the last days of the Church militant, should be the one to write to the Christians of his day: “Believe not every spirit” (1 John 4: 1-6), and earnestly warn his “children” that the “spirit of anti-Christ,” and the “spirit of error” (deception) was already actively at work among them. Their attitude was to be “believe not”–i.e., to doubt every supernatural “teaching” and “teacher,” until proved to be of God. They were to prove the “teachings,” lest they came from a “spirit of error,” and be part of the deceiver’s campaign as “anti- Christ,” i.e., against Christ.

If this attitude of neutrality and doubt toward supernatural teachings was needed in the days of the Apostle John–some fifty-seven years after Pentecost– how much more is it needed in the “later times” foretold by the Lord, and by the apostle Paul. Times which were to be characterised by a clamour of voices of “prophets,” that is–in the language of the twentieth century–“speakers” and “teachers” using the sacred Name of the Lord; and when “teachings” received supernaturally from the spiritual realm, would abound. “Teachings” accompanied with such wonderful proofs of their “divine” origin, as to perplex even the most faithful of the Lord’s people, and even, for a time, to deceive some of them.

DANIEL’S PROPHECY THAT “TEACHERS” SHOULD “FALL” AT THE TIME OF THE END

Daniel, in writing about this same “later time,” said “Some of the teachers shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even at the time of the end” (Dan. 11: 35, R.V. m.). Yes, the truth must be faced! The “elect” may be deceived, and, from Daniel’s words, are apparently permitted to be deceived for a season, so that in the fire testing they may be “refined” (the word refers to the expulsion of dross by the smelting fire): “purified” (the removal of dross already expelled), and made “white” (the polishing and brightening of the metal after it has been freed from its impurities). Probably it is in connection with this solemn word, that one strange statement about the war at the close of the age is made, when it is said of the attack of the leopard-like beast, that “it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Rev. 13: 7).

Daniel also speaks of the same prevailing of the enemy for a season: The horn “made war with the saints, and prevailed against them” (Dan. 7: 21). Daniel adds: “Until the Ancient of Days came . . and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” It appears, therefore, that in the “time of the end,” God will permit Satan to prevail for a season against His saints, even as he prevailed over Peter when he was handed over to him to be sifted (Luke 22: 31); as he apparently prevailed over the Son of God at Calvary, when “the hour and power of darkness” closed around Him at the Cross (Matt. 27: 38-46); and as he is shown to do over the “two witnesses” described in Rev. 11: 7, and in the last great manifestation of the dragon deceiver’s triumph over the saints, and his power over the whole inhabited earth, in Revelation 13: 7-15.

All these instances have taken place at different periods of time in the history of Christ and His Church, and in the Apocalypse picture, the prevailing of the leopard-like beast may refer to the saints on the earth after the translation of the Church; but they show the principle that God’s triumphs are ofttimes hidden in apparent defeat. The elect of God must therefore take heed, at all stages of the war with Satan as deceiver, not to be swayed, or moved by appearances; for the apparent triumph of supernatural powers which appear to be Divine, may prove to be Satanic; and appearances of outward defeat, which appear to be the devil’s victory may prove to cover the triumph of God.

OUTWARD SUCCESS OR DEFEAT NO TRUE CRITERION FOR JUDGMENT

The enemy is a deceiver, and as a deceiver he will work and prevail in the later times. “Success” or “defeat” is no criterion of a work being of God or Satan. Calvary stands for ever as the revelation of God’s way in working out His redemption purposes. Satan works for time, for he knows his time is short, but God works for eternity. Through death to life, through defeat to triumph, through suffering to joy, is God’s way.

Knowledge of truth is the primary safeguard against deception. The “elect” must know, and they must learn to “prove” the “spirits” until they do know what is of God, and what is of Satan. The words of the Master, “Take heed, I have told you , ” plainly implies that personal knowledge of danger is part of the Lord’s way of guarding His own, and believers who blindly rely upon “the keeping power of God,” without seeking to understand how to escape deception, when forewarned to “take heed” by the Lord, will surely find themselves entrapped by the subtle foe. (Jessie Penn-Lewis; War On The Saints, Ch.1)

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!!

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE FOR TESTING TEACHINGS BY TEACHING SPIRITS

Since thought, or “belief,” originates either from the God of Truth, or the father of lies (John 8: 44), there is but one basic principle for testing the source of all doctrines, or “thoughts” and “beliefs,” held by believers, or unbelievers, i.e., the test of the revealed Word of God.

All “truth” is in harmony with the only channel of revealed truth in the world–the written Word of God. All “teachings” originating from deceiving spirits–

1. Weaken the authority of the Scriptures;
2. Distort the teaching in the Scriptures;
3. Add to the Scriptures the thoughts of men; or
4. Put the Scriptures entirely aside.

The ultimate object being to hide, distort, misuse, or put aside the revelation of God concerning the Cross of Calvary, where Satan was overthrown by the God-Man, and where freedom was obtained for all his captives.

The test of all “thought” and “belief” therefore is its

1. Harmony with the written Scriptures in its full body of truth.
2. The attitude to the Cross, and sin.

In the Christianised world, some doctrines of demons, tested by these two primary principles, may be mentioned as

In the heathen world:

In the Christian Church:

Countless “thoughts” and “beliefs,” which are opposed to the truth of God, are injected into the minds of Christians by teaching spirits, rendering them ineffective in the warfare with sin and Satan, and subject to the power of evil spirits, although they are saved for eternity through their faith in Christ, and accept the authority of the Scriptures, and know the power of the Cross. All “thoughts” and “beliefs” should therefore be tested by the truth of God revealed in the Scripture, not merely by “texts” or portions of the Word, but by the principles of truth revealed in the Word. Since Satan will endorse his teachings by “signs and wonders” (Matt. 24: 24; 2 Thess. 2: 9; Rev. 13: 13), “fire from heaven”, “power” and “signs,” are no proof of “teaching” being of God; nor is a “beautiful life” to be the infallible test, for Satan’s “ministers” can be “ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11: 13- 15). -Jessie Penn-Lewis, War on the Saints; Ch. 1

Dear God, thank you for encouraging us to test all of our thoughts and beliefs by Your truth that is revealed in the Bible. Help us not to be lazy in testing these things by settling for certain texts or pieces of the Bible, but by the principles of truth that you have revealed to us in your word. We are willing to learn. We are your humble students – teach us. Thank you for destroying the works of the Devil and for awakening us to his deceptions in our lives. Amen.

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!!

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

THE EFFECT ON THE CONSCIENCE OF THE TEACHINGS BY EVIL SPIRITS

How teaching spirits teach, we find described by Paul, for he says they speak lies in hypocrisy, that is, speak lies as if they were truth. And the effect of their working is said to “cauterize” (Gr.) the conscience, i.e. , if a believer accepts the teachings of evil spirits as Divine, because they come to him “supernaturally,” and he obeys, and follows those “teachings,” “conscience” is unused, so that it practically becomes dulled and passive–or seared–and a man does things under the influence of supernatural “revelation” which an actively awakened “conscience” would keenly rebuke and condemn. Such believers “give heed”‘ to these spirits, by (1) listening to them, and then by (2) obeying them; for they are deceived by accepting wrong thoughts about God’s presence, and about Divine love, and unknowingly give themselves up to the power of lying spirits. Working in the line of “teaching,” deceiving spirits will insert their “lies” spoken in hypocrisy, into “holiness” teaching, and deceive believers about sin, themselves, and all other truths connected with the spiritual life.

Scripture is generally used as the basis of these teachings, and is skilfully woven together like a spider’s web, so that they are caught in the snare. Single texts are wrenched from their context, and their place in the perspective of truth; sentences are taken from their correlative sentences, or texts are aptly picked out from over a wide field, and so netted together as to appear to give a full revelation of the mind of God; but the intervening passages, giving historical setting, actions and circumstances connected with the speaking of the words, and other elements which give light on each separate text, are skilfully dropped out.

A wide net is thus made for the unwary, or the untaught in the principles of Scripture exegesis, and many a life is side-tracked, and troubled by this false using of the Word of God. Because the experience of ordinary Christians in regard to the devil is limited to knowing him as a tempter, or as an accuser, they have no conception of the depths of his wickedness, and of the wickedness of evil spirits, and are under the impression that they will not quote Scripture, whereas they will quote the whole Book if they can but deceive one soul.

SOME WAYS OF “TEACHING” BY DECEIVING SPIRITS

The “teachings” of deceiving spirits now being promulgated by them, are too many in number to enumerate in a small compass. They are generally recognized only in “false religions,” but the teaching spirits with their “doctrines,” or religious ideas suggested to the minds of men are ceaselessly at work in every clime, seeking to play upon the religious instinct in men, and give a substitute for truth.

Therefore truth, alone, dispels the deceptive doctrines of the teaching spirits of Satan: the truth of God, not merely “views of truth.” Truth concerning all the principles and laws of the God of Truth. “Doctrines of demons” simply consist of that which a man “thinks” and “believes” as the outcome of suggestions made to his mind by deceiving spirits. All “thought” and “belief” belongs to one of two realms–the realm of truth, or the realm of falsehood–each having its source in God or Satan. All truth comes from God, and all that is contrary to truth, from Satan. Even the “thoughts ” that apparently originate in a man’s own mind come from one of these two sources, for the mind itself is either darkened by Satan (2 Cor. 4: 4), and therefore fertile soil for his “teachings,” or renewed by God (Ephes. 4: 23), and clarified from the veil of Satan, and made open to the reception and transmission of truth.

What, then, is the condition of safety from the deception of evil  spirits?
(1) Knowledge that they exist; (2) that they can deceive the  most honest believers (Gal. 2: 11-16); (3) an understanding of the conditions  and ground necessary for their working, so as to give them no place, and no  opportunity of working; and, lastly, (4) intelligent knowledge of God, and how  to co-operate with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. – Jessie Penn-Lewis; War On the Saints, Chapter 1

Dear God, please protect us from ourselves. From the sin of trusting in our own reasoning and opinions about matters that we can barely grasp. Give us a humble and open heart, willing to be wrong if it means that we be saved from Falsehood. Lead us into all truth, into the whole Truth.
Thank you Jesus that you are the Truth, and the Way and the Life. Help us to follow you, open our eyes to the deception of Satan in our lives – we are willing that you reveal to us our own mistakes which has given him ground to work in our lives. Thank you for renewing our minds so that we may be able to discern the truth from the false. We love you and need you, and we thank you for choosing us, children of darkness, to become children of light. Amen

But Jesus answered, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And then the Devil left him for a time. Matthew 4:4

Thank you for the hundreds of e-mails and texts supporting this and for sharing your heart with me!!!

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Dear God,

Thank you that we are teachable, humble and open minded to the truth. Thank you for planting a seed in us to question and test things that otherwise we would be hopelessly blinded to. Thank you for providing us with wise Spirit-filled teachers who can shed light on some of the most important questions we’ve ever asked, such as: “What, then, is the condition of safety from the deception of evil  spirits?

(1) Knowledge that they exist; (2) that they can deceive the  most honest believers (Gal. 2: 11-16); (3) an understanding of the conditions  and ground necessary for their working, so as to give them no place, and no  opportunity of working; and, lastly, (4) intelligent knowledge of God, and how  to co-operate with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. To make these points  clear will be our purpose in succeeding pages.”

Thank you for using this woman to deliver a message that we desperately need to know. Amen.

War On The Saints; Chapter 1: continued:

THE SATANIC FORCES DESCRIBED IN EPHES. 6

Demoniacal “doctrines” have been generally tabulated as either belonging to the Church of Rome, because of the two marked results of demon teaching mentioned by Paul, which characterise that Church; or later “cults” of the twentieth century, with their omission of the fact of sin, and the need of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and a Divine Saviour. But there is a vast realm of doctrinal deception by deceiving spirits, penetrating, and interpenetrating Evangelical Christendom, by which evil spirits, in more or less degree, influence the lives even of Christian men, and bring them under their power; even spiritual Christians being thus affected on the plane described by the Apostle, where believers united to the Risen Christ meet “spiritual wickedness” in “heavenly places.” For the Satanic forces described in Eph. 6: 12, are shown to be divided into (1) “Principalities“–force and dominion dealing with nations and governments; (2) “Powers“–having authority and power of action in all the spheres open to them; (3) “ World- rulers“–governing the darkness, and blindness of the world at large; (4) “Wicked spirits” in the heavenly places–their forces being directed in, and upon the Church of Jesus Christ, in “wiles,” “fiery darts,” onslaughts, and every conceivable deception over “doctrines” which they are capable of planning.

The peril of the household of God is therefore not of a few, but all, for obviously none can “fall away from the faith” but those who are actually in the faith to begin with. The peril is from an army of teaching spirits poured forth by Satan upon all who would be open to “teachings” from the spiritual world, and through ignorance of such a danger, be unable to detect the wiles of the enemy.

The peril assails the Church from the supernatural world, and comes from supernatural spirit-beings who are persons (Mark 1: 25) with intelligent power of planning (Matt. 12: 44, 45), with strategy (Eph. 6: 11) the deception of those who “give heed” to them.

The peril is supernatural. And those who are in peril are the spiritual children of God; who are not to be beguiled by the world or the flesh, but who are open to all they can learn of “spiritual” things, with sincere longing to be more “spiritual” and more advanced in the knowledge of God. For deception by doctrines would not concern the world so much as the Church. Evil spirits would not urge spiritual Christians to open sin, such as murder, drink, gambling, etc., but would plan deception in the form of “teaching” and “doctrines,” the believer not knowing that deception on “teaching” and “doctrines” gives admission to evil spirits to “possess” the deceived one, as much as through sin.

HOW THE EVIL SPIRITS DECEIVE BY “DOCTRINES”

How the evil spirits as teachers get men to receive their teachings, may be summed up in three specific ways: (1) By giving their doctrines, or teachings, as spiritual revelations, to those who accept everything supernatural as Divine because [it is] supernatural–a certain class unaccustomed to the spiritual realm, accepting all that is “supernatural” as from God. This form of “teaching” is direct to the person; in “flashes” of light on a text, “revelations” by visions of Christ, or streams of texts apparently from the Holy Spirit. (2) By mixing their “teachings” with the man’s own reasonings, so that he thinks he has come to his own conclusions. The teachings of the deceiving spirits in this form are so natural in appearance, that they seem to come from the man himself, as the fruit of his own mind, and reasoning. They counterfeit the working of the human brain, and inject thoughts and suggestions into the human mind; for they can directly communicate with the mind, apart from gaining possession (in any degree) of the mind or body.

Those who are thus deceived, believe that they have come to their own conclusions, by their own reasonings, ignorant that the deceiving spirits have incited them to “reason” without sufficient data, or on a wrong premise, and thus come to false conclusions. The teaching spirit has achieved his own end by putting a lie in the man’s mind, through the instrumentality of a false reasoning.

(3) By the indirect means of deceived human teachers, supposed to be conveying undiluted Divine “truth,” and implicitly believed because of a godly life and character, believers saying, “He is a good man, and a holy man, and I believe him.” The life of the man is taken as a sufficient guarantee for his teaching, instead of judging the “ teaching” by the Scriptures, apart from his personal character. This has its foundation in the prevalent idea that everything that Satan and his evil spirits do is manifestly evil, the truth not being realized that they work under cover of light (2 Cor. 11: 14), i.e., if they can get a “good man” to accept some idea from them, and pass it on as “truth,” he is a better instrument for deceptive purposes than a bad man who would not be believed.

FALSE AND DECEIVED TEACHERS

There is a difference between “false” teachers, and deceived ones. There are many deceived ones amongst the most devoted teachers to-day, because they do not recognize that an army of teaching spirits have come forth to deceive the people of God, and that the special peril of the spiritual section of the Church lies in the supernatural realm, from whence the deceiving spirits with “teachings” are whispering their lies to all who are “spiritual,” i.e., open to spiritual things. The “teaching spirits” with “doctrines” will make special effort to deceive those who have to transmit “doctrine,” and seek to mingle their “teachings” with truth, so as to get them accepted. Every believer must test all teachers to-day, for himself, by the Word of God, and their attitude to the atoning Cross of Christ, and other fundamental truths of the gospel, and not be misled into testing “teaching” by the character of the teacher. Good men can be deceived, and Satan needs good men to float his lies under the guise of truth. – Jessie Penn-Lewis

Bellydance!!