The Devil’s Gospel
I had originally titled this the new demonic lexicon, but You and I know that there’s nothing new under the sun. Wealth and prosperity as a gospel while promoting a “peacemaker” attitude in its most cause-less apathy has created a celebration in the spiritual realm of the enemy. You’ve shown me something today that I believe is a point we hang on, we take the term peacemaker in Matthew 5 as a passive way to handle situations. Not so. That would be a peaceKEEPER. Of course as Christians we wouldn’t dare create conflict because of a difference of opinion, that goes against Your laws and Christ’s teachings. However, where there is chaos, there is no peace. I saw a quote from LinkedIn of all places that says “Being a peacekeeper means trying to maintain harmony by avoiding or smoothing over conflicts. On the other hand, being a peacemaker means actively working towards resolving conflicts and finding a solution that works for all parties involved.” As a purely human interest statement, that’s well and fine, but looking at it through Your moral compass and the commands You have given us, peace isn’t achieved without You. Conflicts, harmony, and solutions may seem like noble goals to work towards, but without You at the center, we are marching ourselves into the same pit that we keep trying to dig ourselves out of. The statement does show a clear difference, however with peacemaker and peacekeeper. One is of action, one is of in-action. The worst thing a Christian can be is a peacekeeper. No action, gospely lethargic, and passive to all evil that surrounds us in the name of “keeping the peace”.
We are making it easy for demonic activity to flourish. We let them hide under the guise of mental health and wellness where it's better to be sick than sinful. Let’s look back 150 years or so. If someone called themselves randy the rat king, put on a costume, and told everyone that we should chop off little boys genitals or give prepubescent girls mastectomies people would have looked at the fool and said surely they have a demon in them. The attack hasn’t changed from the adversary, just the language. Now instead of dismissing demons from a person in the name of Christ, we are “learning” to be tolerant to the fallacious “truths” of madmen and women possessed by the spirit of the age. Again, for perhaps the third time in this letter, it’s nothing new. You raised Your hand time and time again against nations and people who would not turn from their wickedness and would worship the god of self and indulgence rather than The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. We have grown soft to sin in our comfort and outright refuse to talk about and call out its destructive power.
Growing up in church there’s always been a consistent message of things to avoid. Politics and, ironically enough, religion. Among the other treasures that the Bible is, it’s a powerful political document. Empires were raised and lost with people coming in and out of power throughout the entire book, yet we aren’t going to discuss these things in the Sunday school classrooms or the pulpit? The enemy is. Those who are against You are constantly spreading their message whether it be religious, political, educational, whatever, they have their own pulpits (in many of Your houses) and prattle on endlessly about how what You’ve said no longer matters, but how people feel is the real source of governance. We’ve put the devil behind the lecterns in our schools, our churches, and our businesses and have an expectation of You to fix everything while we be still and wait. How pious of us. Had we the discernment of proper context and the ability to differentiate whether or not something is a call of action or not, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Oh wait, we do. Your Holy Spirit surrounds us and dwells in us to call a spade a spade. So what’s the problem, then?
No action. The enemy is prepared on his tactics, he has vast reserves, he has power, but all of that is meaningless because as believers we have access to our Sovereign God of the Universe. The issue is satan has developed our thought of You into something You are not. You don’t conform to us. You don’t give us whatever we want whether it’s good or bad for us. So when we have the mindset of “God’s gonna get me this job” or “God’s gonna heal me” or “God’s gonna bless my bank account”, when it doesn’t happen, especially in our timing or our sense of fulfillment, we turn away. “But Jesus said, ’If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you". He certainly did. He also said to deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow Him. 1 John 2:15 tells us we should not “love the world or the things in the world” and in James it says “You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.” When we talk about us speaking something into being, that is manifestation worship. 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,”. When we say we can manifest these things by speaking them, we are robbing the power of Christ, we are conjuring through demonic practices, we are embracing the demonological lexicon, “Peace and Prosperity”. Is asking for something wrong, of course not. Is putting hope in what we’re asking for wrong, yep. Our hope comes from our Savior. In James it says ask for anything, but the desire of the heart is changed. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart”. Being captivated, charmed, thrilled, or greatly pleased by Christ can lead to wanting new, Godly things that are consistent with the new person the Holy Spirit is creating. Our desires should not be of the world, but instead transformed to Your desires to reach the sick, the homeless, the dying, the lost.
How often I find You talking to me more than me writing to You in our messages. May the desires of my heart never conform to the world and become dependent on what I believe may be the answer to my problems, but that Your desires take their place to strengthen me in spirit so I can do Your will and reject the errant and vain teachings of the world and the powers that compel them. The name of Christ is exalted above all where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that You are Lord. I pray the lost come to that before meeting You and that I carry Your will out of getting Your message to them anyway I can, Amen.