Good Company

In my last couple of blogs, I have been talking about the spiritual warfare that is occurring around us and which is largely ignored by the average Christian.  I mentioned that the apostle Paul stressed this multiple times in his letters to the early churches.  After writing the last blog, I thought about why Paul chose to do this?  The simplistic obvious answer is that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so.  Let’s consider this for a moment.  I don’t think that the Holy Spirit downloaded these letters into Paul’s consciousness nor do I think that the holy Spirit took control of Paul’s hand, like some puppet, moving his hand to pen those letters.  Although either is possible, I guess; I don’t find it to be consistent with how the Holy Spirit is shown to operate in scripture.  Based Matthew 28:20, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that the other apostles taught Paul this after his conversion:

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

Paul was taught about the works of Jesus and he carried on Christ’s work.

I earlier entertained the thought that I was just being a “spiritual MONK, seeing a demon around every corner or behind every bush. I do not think so! To better understand and grasp the seriousness of this, I want to look at the gospels, observing Christ, since many of us call ourselves “Christian”, claiming to be one of His followers, striving to be “Christ-like” and having the hope of heaven before us.

In the four gospels the words: Satan, the devil, demon, demons, evil spirit or evil spirits, are mentioned 138 times in the New King James version of the Bible.

Compare this to the word “tithe”, which is mentioned twice.

It is not my intent to get into a theological discussion on tithing or giving in general; but I do want all of those reading this to consider what I just mentioned. 

We often bemoan the fact that God has been taken out of our government and schools.  I want propose that the devil has been taken out of our churches.  You say, “I didn’t think that he was supposed to there”.  The devil has been and is being largely ignored.  We “act like”, he is not there, is not real, he has no effect.  I think that he likes it that way: “Out of sight, out of mind”.

This is NOT how Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles operated.  Scripture tells to be aware, to resist, and to stand against him and his cohorts. 

Where do YOU stand? Are you in company with Jesus and Paul?