Defilement, Deception, and Intimidation

11 March 2012

Dear Phyllis,

The other day Pammy and I had a monumental squall. When it was over, and the dust settled, it became clear that the devil had done a real number on me, causing me to make an enormous problem over nothing. I was 100% in error. In sharing this with Gary, he suggested, “Why don't you write something about how the devil has access to our minds?”

Indeed he does. My goodness, he had access to Jesus' mind. In all three cases in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness it starts out with, “The devil said to him...” (Mt. 4:3,5,9). This was a re-enactment of what happened in the Garden with Eve, when the Fall all stated when “the serpent (devil) said to the woman...” (Gen. 3:1). In 1 Chron. 21:1 we read, “And Satan stood up against Israel to provoke David to number Israel. And David said...” That incident of numbering the people was not something that originated in the heart of David, but that one came from the devil.

The main arena of spiritual warfare is fought in the mind. Paul says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into capticvity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4,5). All three objects – thoughts, knowledge, and imaginations – are things of the mind.

We know that the heart is composed of three elements – the intellect, emotions, and will. These can be pictured as a horse, a cart and a rider. The horse is the thoughts, the cart is the emotions, and the driver is the will. The proper configuration is when the driver directs the thoughts; or the will controls the mind. But sometimes this gets reversed. The cart pushes the horse and the driver is carried away by an out-of-control horse. This is what happens when emotions get control and takes over the mind. In that case the will is carried away where the emotions leads.

This is what happened with Ananias and Sapphria (Act 5:1-10). Peter said, “Why hath satan filled thine heart?” The word “filled” used here is the same word used in Eph. 5:18 where we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the same process. How did satan fill their hearts? First of all they sold some property. There is nothing wrong with that. Next they made a lot of money. That's okay. Then satan said to Anania, “That is a lot of money. There are a lot of things you could do with that money.” True. But the emotional impact of all that they could do with that money got excited. The devil was helpful in suggesting, “You don't have to give all that money away.”' That also was true. But everybody else was giving everything to God. It would look bad if they didn't give everything also. The emotional struggle got to the fever pitch. A. and S. knew it was wrong to give false pretense, but they couldn't handle the issue of parting with all that money or look bad with the other Christians. The devil moved them to do something they knew was wrong. When the devil got control of their will, he had them. He filled their hearts – thoughts, emotions and will.

Rev. 12:11 is a key verse in spiritual warfare – “They overcame him (devil) by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death”. Here we have the three basic areas of spiritual conflict, and the devil's tactics, how he attacks us. There are only three ways he can get to us – defilement, deception, and intimidation. All three of these are in the area of the mind.

When the children of Israel were threatening Moab in the days of Moses, Balak sent for the leading occultist in the world, Balaam, to come and curse them. This incident in Numbers 22-25 is most instructive. Balaam told a frustrated Balak, “There us no enchantment against Jacob,, neither is there any divination against Israel” God's people are above this. The devil simply cannot bring curses against Christians. But Balaam gave Balak a clever solution. Get them defiled. Get them gunked up in sin and the curse of God will come down on them (Rev. 2:14).

This tactic is as old as sin in the Garden. This is the devils primary object for sale. This was the primary ruin of the OT. This is what has turned humanity and the world into a moral sewer. This is what has been the downfall of countless of thousands of Christians – sin! If the devil can't get to a Christian any other way, a highly effective tactic is to get him gunked up with compromise with sin. Sin is the basic means the devil uses to separate man from God.

The whole purpose of the Cross of Christ was to correct this problem. It is only by the Blood of Christ that sin is cleansed (1 Jn. 1:7; Heb. 9:22). There is nothing the devil hates more than the Blood of Christ. It is by His Blood that the Lord has disarmed the devil. This is our weapon against defilement. We overcome the devil by the Blood of the Lamb. In spiritual conflict we frequently plead the Blood. It is common to pray, “Lord cover us by Thy Blood.” This is a barrier demons can't penetate. This is the first thing, mentioned in Rev. 12:11.

But if the devil can't get to a person by defilement he has another highly effective tactic – deception. There are many references concerning deception in the Bible, and Rev. 12:9 says the the devil deceives the whole world. There is only one answer for deception – truth. God will give a man a choice to believe truth or the devils lie. The devil makes his lie persuasive by deception. This how is he got Eve (1Ti. 2:14). It is only by a word of testimony that we can combat deception. We must say, “What the devil is showing you may look good, but the truth is...”

There is another facet of the devils lies that is equally destructive among Christians – misunderstanding. Who knows what enormous disruption the devil has caused in the Body of Christ between Christians by misunderstandings. I heard the story of a Japanese Christian man who went to his pastor to ask for help for his son. The next Sunday the pastor's wife was sick and the pastor was unusually heavy due to his wife's illness. But when the man saw the strained look on the pastor's face, he thought the pastor was upset over him, and left the church, never to return.

I knew two brothers who were very close and daily prayed together. But something came between them. Sonny came to me to talk about that problem. I suggested they have it out. So the next day Sonny said, “Craig, what is wrong with you? You have been so cold lately.” Craig answered, “It isn't me. You are the one who has something against me.” They finally were able to trace it back to a phone call, which Craig had overheard. He misinterpreted some remarks that Sonny had said. This caused block in Craig's' heart, and over the next two weeks it just kept amplifying in each man feeling uncomfortable with the other. When they finally got to the baseless stone the devil had inserted, they laughed and fellowship was restored.

The thing that happened to me last Monday was a classic. The devil really did a number on me. Sunday night Pammy did something that I grossly misinterpreted. What I imagined was very real to me, and my emotions ran extremely high. Pammy was shocked and hurt. I said, “You pull that stunt one more time, there will be serious consequence.” She slept in another room. Monday morning I called Pastor Kichikun saying that we had an extremely serious problem to deal with. The first thing he said to me was, “Calm down.” Then he talked to everyone involved. Finally he said to me again, “You are making a huge problem over nothing.” He was right, but I couldn't see it at the time. As the Lord began to answer prayer, He opened my eyes to see where I was totally mistaken. I apologized, and Pammy has been very forgiving. Everything has been wonderful since then. But it took a word of testimony to save what could have been a disaster.

If the devil can't get a person by defilement or deception his last tactic is intimidation. Tragically, this has been very effective in silencing much evangelism and closed down many Christians. The answer to this tactic is difficult, but it is watershed between the real servants of Christ, and those who just claim to be. Jesus said if a man did not hate his own life he COULD NOT be His disciple (Lk. 14:26). It is easy to say that we are Jesus' disciple and following the Lord, but intimidation will prove whether or not that is real. The only way to overcome intimidation is by not loving your life unto death. If this is real, the devil has no leverage.

One time Ron Blough got in a hot go-around with the base chaplain at Yokota Air Base, and called him wicked – which he was. The chaplain was furious and said, “I am going to pull your base pass.” Ron replied, “I defy you to do it!” He didn't have one. There was nothing the chaplain could do or get leverage on Ron. If you have surrendered your life to Jesus there is nothing the devil can take from you. You can't lose what you don't have.

Sadhu Sanda Sing was a famous Indian mystic. His passion was give his life for Jesus; and one of the saddest days of his life was his 34^th birthday. He never wanted to live longer than Jesus. The Lord later granted him his request in giving his life for Him. For years he was the only man to penetrate the border to carry the Gospel into Nepal and Tibet. Every summer he would trek deep into the Himalayas preaching Christ where no one could get in. One summer he went in on his summer dendo (evangelism) but never returned, leaving his body in an unmarked grave in the Himalayas.

Should this not be the passion of every Christian? What sin is this that Jesus should leave heaven to come and give His life for us, but we selfishly want to give so little for Him? The Islamic terrorists are a rebuke to the Body of Christ. Thousands are willing to be suicide bombers for the questionable motive of gaining heaven with its 72 virgins. This is, at best, a sinful, selfish, hope. But it is a fact that Jesus has done infinitively more for us than we could ever repay. The least we can do is to give our lives to Him.

Fear is a paralyzing emotion. Fear to pass out a tract or speak to someone about Jesus, has silenced millions of witnesses. Fear of losing a job or suffer a little reproach for the Name of the Lord has crippled millions. Intimidation is a very poor means of guidance, but many Christians have been guided by it. “It looks a little dangerous. Maybe we shouldn't do it.” Hang it! Where in the Bible does it say fear should be my guiding light?

This is all the devil can throw at us – defilement, deception, and intimidation. The over comers in Revelation overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. All of this is fought in the mind. And the devil attacks us daily with thoughts in all three areas. It is unlikely that any of us will be exempt or be out of arrow shot range until we get inside the City. But with the very Spirit of Christ living in our hearts, He should be able to keep us until we get that far.

Deshoo? (Isn't that true)

bill

Imminent Return

4 March 2012

Dear Phyllis,

Last week, while my having weekly meeting with Gary, we got into a heated discussion about the Lord's return. I gave vent to my passionate belief that we are right on the door step of the return of Christ. Gary replied, “Yes BUT they were talking like that in 1950 and Christ still isn't here.” That got me going on my two reasons for passionately believing in the immanent return of Christ. Gary said, “That is pretty good. Why don't you write about it next week?” Hence this letter.

The first reason I believe in the imminent return of Christ is because I believe it is a central message of the Holy Spirit. The pre-trib and post-trib people have argued over the chronology of events for decades. There are good arguments on both sides of the fence, but one position I will not compromise on is the doctrine of the immanent return of Christ. I say that because I believe it was a major doctrine of Paul and the 1^stcentury Christians. It is impossible to read the NT without seeing that they believed Jesus was coming back very soon. The entire reason for Paul's First Letter to Thessalonians was to further explain details about Christ's return (1 Th. 4:13-18). The question might be raised, “why is it that the 1^st century Christians believed Jesus was coming back very soon, when 2,000 years later He still isn't here?” To answer that I resort to my theme of the Inverted Kingdom.

I see in the scripture a clear teaching the the laws of the Kingdom of God are reversed from the natural laws of this world – up-down, live-die, get-lose, win-surrender, etc. In this teaching, I see a necessity to think outside the box. Just as it is necessary for a stone-age savage in the Amazon to think outside the box of his world-view or experience to understand life in Tokyo; we have an even greater problem in understanding spiritual truth unless we are willing to go outside the box of natural logic to receive that truth. Paul tells us clearly that it is impossible for the natural man to receive spiritual truth – it is foolishness to him (1 Cor. 2).

Along with the recognition that the laws of the Kingdom are backwards, I believe there are a great deal of things in the Kingdom of God that don't exist in our natural world. One of which is the co-existence of contradiction. In our world it is impossible for two contradictory things to exist together. Either it is hot or cold, up or down, right or wrong, etc. They both can't be true at the same time. I believe in the Kingdom of God they can. I see many things in the Bible that are clearly contradictory. I have mentioned this to you several times before. One is free will of man, and the sovereignty of God. Both can't be right. I firmly believe they are. Another is the very doctrine of the Trinity. You can't have only One God and yet have three separate persons in that Trinity. In Christ there are many contradiction. It is difficult to have Jesus be God and totally human. It is difficult for Him to be both the King and the servant; the priest and still the sacrifice, etc.

Along with this, there is the problem of Jesus' promise to come quickly. Jesus said four times in Revelation that He was coming quickly – three times in the last chapter (Rev. 3:11, 22:7,12,20). John said “the time is at hand”(Rev. 1:3). Two thousand years doesn't seem like quickly to me. More than that, I believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness with Jesus' promise by giving a strong witness in the hearts of His believers that He is coming soon. The 1^st century Christians believed that Jesus was coming in their day. In 1800 Christians believed that Jesus was coming soon, in 1950 Christians believed that Jesus was at the door, and today I passionately believe that the return of Christ will be VERY SOON. Does that mean that Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit is a lie? No. I believe this is a truth that is different than what we have on earth. By our standard this is clearly a lie. But from heavens position I believe what Jesus said, and the Holy Spirit bears witness, is absolutely true. I believe in eternity that we will see that Jesus kept His word and came quickly. By our reasoning this is difficult to see, but I believe it is no less true.

For one reason, the return of Christ is measured by heavens clock – not ours. In eternity there is only one day. Eternity is the eternal TODAY. CS Lewis correctly observes that in eternity, in 1960, 1940 is still happening and 1980 has already happened. It is the eternal present. This might explain why, by heavens clock 2000 years is quickly. I believe is is accurate to say that Christians have believed in the immanent return of Christ ever since the days of the Apostles. And I believe that it is imperative for any healthy Christian to expect Jesus to be back at any moment. I believe it is unhealthy for a Christian to believe,“No sweat. Jesus won't be here for another 50 years. We have a lot of time on our hands”. I believe any normal Christian should live like; “Today may be my last day on earth. Jesus could be here this afternoon. I hope when He comes He finds me doing what I should be doing.” That is why I believe the Holy Spirit puts in the heart of any generation of Christians an intense expectation of the return of Christ.

The second reason I believe the return of Christ cannot be far away is the unique days we are living in. It may be true that every generation thought that their generation was the most unique in history, but I believe – in light of history –we are living in days like have never happened before.

For 6,000 years the most efficient way to kill a man was with a club, spear , or arrow. At the time of the Civil War in 1860, reloading rifles came into use which greatly increased firepower. At the time of the 2^nd WW rapid fire machine guns were used. During the Korean War the Chinese still used human waves as an attack tactic. Today, military hardware is so advanced that this is virtually impossible. In the Seven Seals of Revelation (Rev. 5:1); the first seal is the white horse, which is obviously bloodless conquest (Rev. 6:2). This is political power. But the second seal is the red horse, which, unmistakably, is war. It is written “power was given him to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword (Rev. 6:4). I believe that great sword is nuclear warfare. One hundred years ago man could only be killed one at a time, but today tens of millions can be killed in a flash. This is one of the unique features of our present age.

Daniel said that two of the characteristics of the end time would be an increase in travel and the expansion of knowledge (Dan. 12:4). I have seen charts graphically depicting this. The chart of travel and knowledge is interesting. I have forgotten the exact figures, but until the invention of the steam engine, man could not go faster than the fastest horse could run. At the time of the invention of the steam engine there was speculation whether human life could be sustained at a velocity of 60mph. The steam engine was replaced by the internal combustion engine, and that has been replaced by the jet engine. Until the Bell X 1 in 1949 the challenge was to go faster than the speed of sound. Today they are talking in terms of going Mach 5. The chart on travel is dramatic. For 6,000 years the average distance a human would travel in a year was almost flat. With the discovery of the New World and sailing vessels, that line began to rise. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, that line began to move up rapidly. Today the distance a human travels in a year is going up exponentially. It is rising almost vertically. On a 6000 year chart this is extremely recent.

Of the major inventions, there are a few that have transformed humanity. The invention of the wheel was one. The three types of engines are another. Electricity was huge. With that, an entire new package of communication opened up. But I wonder if any invention has had a bigger impact on humanity than the computer chip. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, and television transformed communication. But the computer chip has astonishingly impacted total knowledge. On a chart of total knowledge, the line rises slowly for thousands of years. Then after the printing press and other means of communication became available, the line began to rise more rapidly. Today the line for total knowledge is rising exponentially at the same rate as travel. What we are witnessing in the past 30 years is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. This is a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecies that no one could have envisioned.

There are two things about the advent of TV and the computer chip that I feel are highly significant for setting the stage for the Lord's return. One is the impact on society. For millenniums the greatest force for molding society was philosophers and religion. Philosophers influenced the intelligentsia, but religion molded society. Unquestionably Judaic/Christian teaching molded the western nations. And where the Gospel went, that transformed society. Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism molded the other nations of the world. Culturally nothing has had as great influence on society as religion. But the religious teacher has been replaced by a much more powerful prophet – TV . With modern communication, the entertainment industry has become the dominant influence molding national morals and thinking. In the past 60 years I have witnessed the transformation of both the US and Japan from being basically conservative nations to moral sewers. Anyone who question this has only to look at the behavior of youth. The influence of TV and the movie screen has enormously impacted national morals, but there is another element that – to the best of my knowledge – no one has calculated the impact of porno on the individual. Never in human history has there been available such high voltage imagery as we have today. With a click there is access to some of the most vile scenes ever enacted. It can only be imagined how this impacts individual behavior. The devil has a huge tool at his disposal that has never existed before. This has got to unravel humanity at a breathtaking speed.

Politically and economically we are witnessing enormous transformations that have never happened before. I say all this as an indication that indeed we are in the last days.

But in the positive quadrant there are equally astonishing proofs of the time of our age. One is the thesis I wrote you last week concerning the Back to Jerusalem movement. Along with the electronic deterioration of society we are also seeing an acceleration of evangelism undreamed of 100 years ago. What is happening in world wide missions is unprecedented. Most of it in the past 50 years. I said last week that what has happened is a tsunami of the center of Christianity that started in Jerusalem, moved across the Mediterranean, Europe, England, and America. There is no question but what the center of the Gospel today in in the Orient. Based on the Bible, and church history there is little doubt where the trajectory of this tsunami is headed. Unquestionably west. Along with the rapid deterioration of society and globalisation, modern technology has enabled us to spread the Gospel at a rate never before imagined. I believe we are going to see an acceleration of that tsunami movement at an astonishing rate.

It may take 20 or 30 years to clean out the 10-40 window. It doesn't mater. Based on the witness of the Spirit in many ways and Jesus own promise, I find it only natural to believe in the immanent return of Christ. What we are witnessing in our day has got to be unprecedented in human history. I can't imagine how it can be much longer.

Oh Lord, haste the day when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ (Rev. 13:15).

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus;

bill