Symptoms of Spiritual Pollution, Part 1
Symptoms of Spiritual Pollution, Part 2
Symptoms of Spiritual Pollution, Part 3
Symptoms of Spiritual Pollution, Part 4
In my continuation on the blog series Spiritual Warfare from the last time I discussed the critical aspect of Dependency. I first started off the blog series with Reverence for God. The second part was that to truly understand God you need to submit to his ways and thus not your or other human’s ways. The third aspect is to be completely dependent upon God for everything in your life. The last section of the blog series I focused on the fourth aspect which is TRUST in God.
The next aspect of Spiritual Warfare is Intimacy with God, Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The intimate act of communion with the Creator is what we are after in this life, not the supremacy over demons. However, some people think that having supremacy over the demons is how you defeat them due to the words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ giving us authority over the demons found in Matthew 16:19 discussing the keys to the Kingdom.
It is utterly worthless for a person to think that demons flee at the sound of your voice if this person do not know God. This becomes a meaningless act of speaking words in thousands of exorcisms or deliverances if you do not know sweet intimacy with the One who is literally sustaining your soul. For when you pass away, all of your so-called accomplishments upon this earth shall be stripped away, thus the only thing you will have is your relationship with God.
So when you get to Heaven for judgment of your soul, will you be meeting a total stranger or a King whom you are deeply bonded to? Why one would chase after temporary gifts when you could be pursuing the giver of gifts is mind boggling. For the warning from above is that whoever loves this world is an enemy of God, James 4:4. Which Intimacy you choose to have will have serious implications for your soul in eternity.
So what is Intimacy then? Intimacy is defined as having a close familiarity or friendship, something which is personal and private (Webster’s dictionary). So intimacy with God carries with it the aspects of a relationship with someone where the individual is vulnerable, loving, trusting, etc. To have an intimate relationship with God means that the deepest part of you is having a relationship with God.
What an incredible world in which God who is glorious and you are the speck who is just excited to be in His holy presence. Intimacy with God fills our souls with a deep sense of completion as well as satisfaction. In this intimate act one can find joy, peace, and satisfaction working up within us and pulling us away from a love of any created thing. No greater joy can be experienced than serving a God who says his children are pleasing in His sight. Compared to truly knowing God in an intimate manner being able to discern the presence of demons seems worthless.
So let me ask you the reader of this blog this question. What do you gain from having a heightened awareness of the powers of darkness? Especially when it comes to using “discernment” so to speak in Spiritual Warfare. Our God has already told you that demons abound in this world and that they are intent on destroying us humans, John 10:10. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ beheld Satan fall like lightening, Luke 10:18. So being able to sense or see demons crawling all over other people only heightens your distress.
Yes, they are here and there, but what can you do about it? Nothing! You are just a powerless speck and demons aren’t afraid of you in the slightest. However, what they are extremely afraid of is God, Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, see James 2:19. The demons view you the reader of this blog for what you are: A fragile creature who is so easy to traumatize, manipulate and cause havoc within your life.
The demons know the Bible better than you or any person—thus they can quote any verse in any language known and unknown ancient languages to us humans. Many people in Spiritual Warfare feel that they must do certain aspects to defeat demons. These people feel that they must “study” and know why this person is “demonized” by a particular demon. Yes, part of that aspect is important to know which ones are present within the person, but it is not the end all requirements to defeat the demons.
However, what do you personally gain by focusing on mere created things when you should be directing your attention to the Creator of all? Many times people turn to so called “demonologists” who perform acts to cast off these forces because these demonized people feel they have the knowledge to defeat these created beings. When you have intimacy with God the Father you will be protected, but sadly a demonized person is in this position for the lack of intimacy with God from within their life. Sadly, many of these demonized people are “Christians” who are continually sinning. The apostle Peter warned of sinning Christians being in the grips of Satan in 2nd Peter 2:21.
Now what do you gain by fantasizing that you can go to battle against creatures who are far stronger, can manipulate the laws of psychic, come and go within milliseconds and that you have some knowledge of discernment along with knowledge of which demonic force might be present?
Unfortunately, many people feel that this is all they need and throw the name of the Lord Jesus Christ around to cause the demons to tremble and flee. While they are trembling because of the power in the name of God, however, the demons are not trembling because of this person not having an intimate relationship with God.
Therefore does focusing on the enemies of God draw you closer to God Himself? No, it does not draw one closer to God. Searching within yourself for some “powers” that don’t exist is a complete waste of time. This life is not about triumphing over some group of non-human creatures known as demons. Life is about pursuing an intimate relationship with the Creator of all. Thus this means accepting as well as cooperating with His methods as God drills those four essential attitudes down deep within your being.
Those core values for God are: reverence, submission, dependency and trust. As long as you keep these 4 values at arm’s length, one is not going to grow in the sight of God. What you will create is a state of being spiritually stagnated. These are the humans that the demons seek out to enact their plans upon because of the stagnation within their lives. In order to break free from the grips of the demons one must have that special intimacy with God.
In our next blog we will cover DISCERNMENT and what this affords a person as this is thrown around in Spiritual Warfare.
Rev. Bradley Luoma, Exorcist
