BattleReady

Back in the mid ’80s, two books took the publishing world, especially the Christian publishing world, by storm. Sales of This Present Darkness topped 2.5 million and its sequel, Piercing the Darkness, over 1 million. Although they were works of fiction, they awakened the reality of spiritual warfare in the lives of many, including yours truly. As always there were those who took it above and beyond where Peretti intended, but the picture of spiritual warfare is a vivid one.

We shouldn’t need a fiction book to remind us or alert us to the reality of spiritual warfare. It filters through the Bible. Paul often used battle imagery to make his point, none so clear as in Ephesians 6:10-17.

The battle was just as real in Jesus’ day as it is now. Maybe even more so since He was the Son of God and constantly being challenged. My Scripture for Sunday is Luke 11:14-26, where they accused Jesus of working with Beelzebul, of being in bed with him. Of course Jesus shows how preposterous that whole notion is.

One of the most powerful parts of that Scripture is verses 24-26. I think there are several lessons which come out of that:

1. Unclean spirits prefer to inhabit human bodies rather than to wander aimlessly.
2. A life that is clean but without God is still helpless against the Adversary.
3. A subsequent demonic encounter can be worse than the original one.

It ought to be an interesting Sunday morning. Your prayers are much appreciated.