This authority of the Lord is not just for guard duty or defensive maneuvers. The Holy Spirit desires that, as we follow Christ, we take the battle to the enemy as well. When David sings in Psalm 18 that, under God\u2019s anointing, he can \u201cbend a bow of bronze,\u201d he also states: \u201cI pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed\u201d (Psalm 18:37).<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s make this clear: David was first a worshiper of God. He did not pursue his enemies without first pursuing God. But when the Lord led him into war, he thoroughly defeated his foes.<\/p>\n
I will tell you a solemn truth: Either we pursue our enemies or our enemies will pursue us. We must develop Christ\u2019s attitude toward evil. He came \u201cto destroy the works of the devil\u201d (1 John 3 8). The Bible says, \u201cHate evil, you who love the Lord\u201d (Psalm 97:10). The Holy Spirit is looking for determination in us so that, like David, we will pursue our enemies until they are consumed. It is, in fact, this aggressive attitude of heart that causes us to grow into mature Christlikeness.<\/p>\n
Jesus could live with and forgive human failure, but He never allowed evil spirits to control Him. He was aggressive toward His spiritual enemies. There is no neutral ground. There is no room for a passive spirit in God\u2019s army.
Attack and Counterattack<\/b>
Let\u2019s take a classic example of our need to act aggressively against our enemy: the battle for the mind. If you are frustrated repeatedly by fear, self-pity, anger, immoral thoughts or fleshly lusts, you know that these ideas and feelings will not go away by themselves. Your mind must be renewed through repentance and the knowledge of God\u2019s Word. And if there is demonic activity exploiting your sin nature, that enemy must be confronted in the authority of Jesus\u2019 name. Whether you are fighting fear, lust, anger or any other sin, you are in a war for your soul.<\/p>\n
Some people respond to this by saying: \u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with an evil spirit; my battle is with the flesh.\u201d I agree. Frequent failure in a particular area might genuinely be rooted in the carnal attitudes of our old nature. But if you have repented repeatedly and still cannot find lasting freedom, perhaps the issue is a combination of sin and the devil\u2019s manipulation of that sin. The real power behind recurring failure may well be demonic.<\/p>\n
Yet, even if you confront that demonic entity in the authority of Christ, your fight is not over. The enemy will wait until you relax your guard and try to reenter your life. Recall Jesus\u2019 warning: \u201cNow when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, \u2018I will return to my house from which I came\u2019\u201d (Matthew 12:43-44).<\/p>\n
Jesus explains that even if you have had a genuine deliverance from the hand of God, a time may still come when that \u201cunclean spirit\u201d seeks to return to the \u201chouse from which\u201d it came. The house it seeks to reenter is the darkness created in your soul by your pre-repentant thought-life. The way it seeks access is to masquerade as your own thoughts. Jesus warns that if the unclean spirit returns and finds your soul unguarded, it brings \u201cseven other spirits more wicked than itself\u201d (Matthew 12:45).<\/p>\n
You must discern this counterattack. The enemy will try to infiltrate your mind, seeking to plant a thought or sow a sinful idea in your soul. Then he will attempt to water that seed with corresponding temptation. Beloved, we must capture those initial, invasive thoughts. We must be vigilant to recognize and conquer the oppression before it leads us back into sin. We must take authority over it before it can multiply. If we fail to use our authority, though, the enemy will attempt a full-scale invasion. Jesus says that \u201cthe last state of that man becomes worse than the first\u201d (verse 45).<\/p>\n
Thus, we must be aggressive in our prayers and actions! Satan will attack and counterattack. To win, in the midst of everything else we do, we must guard our hearts and minds. To do this we must exercise spiritual authority aggressively.
Present Attitudes and Future Victories<\/b>
An Old Testament story captures well my concern with the effects of a passive spirit. Elisha the prophet was about to die and Joash, king of Israel, in an unusual show of affection, wept over the man of God. Yet a test remained. After promising victory to the king over Aram, Elisha told Joash to take the arrows and \u201cstrike the ground,\u201d but Joash struck the ground just three times and stopped. At this the prophet became angry and said, \u201cYou should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times\u201d (2 Kings 13:18-19).<\/p>\n
Elisha was angered by the passive spirit in King Joash. He saw that the king did not possess the perseverance to pursue his enemies until he fully conquered them.<\/p>\n
What does this mean for us? The prophet\u2019s anger actually mirrors the Lord\u2019s displeasure toward the passiveness or laziness of His people today. Is it hard to believe that Jesus would actually be angry with His Church? Then consider the Lord\u2019s word to the church in Laodicea, a church that was overly concerned with its own comfort and passive in its attitude toward spiritual realities. Jesus said, \u201cI know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth\u201d (Revelation 3:15-16).<\/p>\n
Jesus would rather we were hot or cold than lukewarm. Does He still love those He rebukes? Of course, but He calls us to change our attitudes. It is not that passivity or laziness is such terrible sin, like murder or adultery. It is simply that such attitudes create a psychological prison around believers that actually holds us hostage to our other sins.<\/p>\n
The Lord is not pleased with the spiritual passivity and indifference so prevalent among His people. We are aware daily that terrorists could attack with massive destruction, or we watch the advance of perversion in our cultures, yet many Christians remain prayerless and inactive. This is in spite of the Lord\u2019s promise that if we will come before Him, humbling ourselves in earnest prayer, He will empower us to pursue our enemies and defeat them. But instead of seeking God\u2019s face on behalf of the lost, too many of us are immobilized by the grip of a passive spirit.<\/p>\n
I am not talking about the level of energy in our bodies, but the level of fire in our obedience. Elisha could see that King Joash was a quitter by the passive way he struck the arrows. Beloved, God has given us authority and He has given us spiritual weapons of our warfare to help us, but we need to get up and fight. We need to repent of a passive spirit and stand with Christ\u2019s authority in this day of battle. For if we fail to do either \u2014 pray or act \u2014 we might actually lose the soul of our nation. Our defeat might come, not because God\u2019s help was not available but because we saw the advance of evil and did nothing.<\/p>\n
For maximum benefit, pray this prayer out loud:
Lord God, I thank You that You have given me authority over all the power of the enemy. Forgive me for allowing my voice to remain silent and my will immobilized by a passive spirit. I realize that to be an overcomer I must pursue my enemy until he is consumed. You have given me authority over the plans and works of evil. You have created me to be a minister of Your righteousness. You have filled me with Your Holy Spirit and with fire. This day I confront, renounce and take authority over the power of the enemy. I break the bondage of a passive spirit. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/p>\n
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/span>The preceding message is adapted from a chapter in Francis\u2019 book, This Day We Fight published by Chosen Books <\/em>. For ordering information, please visit the Arrow Bookstore at www.arrowbookstore.com<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\nMore information<\/strong><\/a>
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