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It's a common churchdom practice, that when people have come together for a time to praise and worship God, to exalt Him and enjoy His fellowship, that they take time out now and then to "rebuke the devil". I once worshipped with a group who opened each assembly with such a rebuke. They became devil/demon obsessed and spent much of their time acknowledging a power that existed only because they allowed it in their vain imaginations. In their own way such people indicate they believe the devil is present, and be it ever so unwitting, in so doing pay him homage.
Please don't misunderstand me. IF a holy ingathering is called, and IF the devil dare show up - this will certainly be discerned by those who are in communion with God - and immediate cleansing of the negative presence take place. This cleansing takes only a word - and then total attention can be devoted to worshipping the LORD.
Perhaps some who read this letter have had this experience: The assembly, either singly or in unison, is praying, and in the middle of the prayer communication with God is interrupted to rebuke the devil. God's blessing is asked on the meeting, on the people who boldly make confessions of faith and belief. Requests for healing and succor are made as praise is offered up to the LORD. And then, with hardly a pause for breath, or any other indication that prayer is anything but God-ward, they start speaking to Satan, rebuking him, telling him to leave God's chosen alone, to flee because they have power over him and he can't bother them any more. Then without even a short breath-long break to change direction, they address the Almighty again in prayer. This ugly duplicity calls the whole procedure into question.
How can one be humbly seeking the presence and mercies of the High and Holy Creator and then interrupt his prayer to talk to the devil? This is not only astonishing but grossly disrespectful. Only Babylon can produce such confusion. That kind of religious nonsense appears to maintain that God and Satan are some sort of co-gods, sharing much of the throne, and so should share the attention and awe due deity.
Place yourself in the position of a petitioner granted an audience with the Queen of England. You approach her presence in all carefulness of manner, speak respectfully to her - and then, suddenly, in the middle of your conversation, turn to speak harshly to one of her underlings, and then back to her! That would be a travesty of your respect for the Queen! Where then is true reverence for God which should be unimaginably far greater than for a mere human Queen?
Call it "taking dominion over the devil", "rebuking satan", "casting out the adversary" - whatever you wish, but underneath the facade of prayer there are strong overtones of paying homage to the great slanderer, the accuser of the brethren - Satan. A negative kind of worship? Certainly, and such giving place to the vicious calumniator is certainly not Biblical and in no way honors our Father. It's an alarming short-fall when one turns from absolute consciousness of God's presence to even a brief thought about satan, let alone speak to him!
A strong indication of how entrenched devil consciousness is among Christians is evident when one makes a statement that he doesn't "believe in" the devil and finds out how quickly the audience comes to their accuser's defense. I don't write that I don't believe the devil exists; quite the contrary; but I put no faith or trust "in" him; I don't "believe in" him and will not give him any recognition other than his existence and that existence as a defeated adversary, brought to impotence by my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ the Righteous!
Some will say, quasi-quoting Peter, that Satan roams about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, thereby attempting to strike fear into the hearer. Let him roar and seek. His teeth are broken off, his claws pulled and his strength sapped because my Master beat him and he is not worth noticing. His only strength is in his roar and shall the Christian heed that ?
Yet, some people seem to have more faith in the old lying slanderer's ability to deceive them than they have faith in the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. They keenly fear falling prey to false doctrine but have little or no faith in being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last age. (See 1 Peter 1.5, various translations.)
There are certainly those occasions when the Holy Spirit will enable one to discern the spirit in a situation so that he'll be able to immediately take authority over it in Christ and cleanse the place and time of negative influence, praise God for HIS victory - and then walk on without another thought of devil or demons.
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5.25). The assumption of "If we live in the Spirit" is never in doubt - and the horatory "let us also walk in the Spirit" then admonishes us to be guided only by God's Holy Spirit. No room's left for doubtful wanderings into devil-consciousness. In fact, this verse indicates a continued "practice of the presence of God", as one writer has said it.
COUNT ON IT!!
By acknowledging HIS LORDSHIP in our life we exclude any place for our hater, the devil, and God is ALL IN ALL.
Hebrews 13.5-6 says, "God has said, `Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (See also Deuteronomy 31.6 and Psalm 118.6,7)
This acknowledgement is a part of our worship. Conversely, if we continually speak of satan as being "on our case" and oppressing us with the myriad ills that flesh is heir to, thereby frustrating our walk and interfering with God's purpose in our life, - we are in error. Anything that hampers our worship of God Almighty is error - but acknowledging satan as the source of that hindrance is truly misdirected worship. May our LORD deliver us from ALL forms of demon-consciousness and the iniquity of natural man!!
"Since, then, the children have a common physical nature as human beings, he also became a human being, so that by going through death as a man he might DESTROY him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might also set free those who lived their whole lives a prey to the fear of death." (Hebrews 2.14-15, Phillips translation, my emphasis).
The word "destroy" in our English Bible has often caused confusion because of literal conception of its connotation. It is a good, though imperfect, translation of the Greek word "katargese", a form of the verb meaning to: (a) condemn to inactivity (Luke 13.7)
The tree is to be cut down because it is "rendering the ground useless ". destroy (1 Corinthians 13.11)
"I did away with the things of the infant." (c) remove from the sphere of activity (Romans 7.2)
A married woman is bound by law to her husband until he dies, at which time she is cleared from the law of the husband.
When the word is used in its religious sense - almost exclusively in the Holy Spirit's message through Paul - it means to make completely inoperative or to put out of use; to put out of action and/or to deprive of power.
We should take time to marvel at the stupendous victory our LORD has taken over the lying, malicious foe who is the hater of the called-out as well as to all other of God's creation.
God is working this victory into His people so that the consciousness of a diabolic realm is diminishing and, when something negative happens, the thought "the devil did it" doesn't even enter their minds. Repugnant counteractive thoughts are being purged so that whatever the situation may be our first thought is, "Thank you, Father! Whatever you are working out is for our good."
This truth must be apprehended: GOD KNOWS WHAT IS BEST FOR US. HE KNOWS WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR OUR PROCESSING AND GROWTH INTO FULL SPIRITUAL STATURE. ALL HE DOES IS FOR THE GOOD. If we really understand that He truly loves us, we are ready to worship Him in ALL His ways, and to accept willingly the bitter and the sweet from His hand.
There is an excellent example of this spiritual disposition in 2 Samuel. You recall that David's son, Absalom, had rebelled and conspired against his father and had attempted to usurp the throne. David fled for his life and as he was in the way a man named Shimei, of Saul's clan, came and cursed David. "He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The LORD has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood'". Some of David's retinue asked permission to take off Shimei's head. "But the king said, 'If he is cursing me because the LORD said to him, 'Curse David', who can ask, 'Why do you do this?' My son, who is my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjaminite? Leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to do it'". (2 Samuel 16.7-8, 10, 11, NIV).
David didn't lay the blame on the devil. He saw the hand of God in this confrontation and everything else that touched his life, firmly believing that what God allowed worked for his own good. He didn't rail against the situation, nor against the instrument that God used, but kept his eye on the LORD. "I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together". (Psalm 34.1,3).
I don't want to be misunderstood in this matter, so I say again that I DO know that there is a realm of evil, a "spirit" realm in which unclean beings exist, but they, also, are creations of our Creator. I DON'T BELIEVE IN, RELY ON, TRUST IN, OR RENDER OBEISANCE TO THESE UNCLEAN SERVANTS OF THE ALMIGHTY. I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN SATAN OR HIS MINIONS. The worship of true believers is GOD-WARD, and it is to HIM the believer bows and renders total allegiance.
In our beloved King James Version of the Bible there are two Greek words that have been translated "devil". The word diabolos means slanderer, false accuser, and in his role as Satan, is named a liar and the father of lies by our Saviour. The words daimonion and daimon are also mistranslated "devil". In the New Testament they mean "demon" or "evil spirit". Furthermore, the word "satan" is a Hebrew word, brought directly into New Testament language and means "hater", "calumniator", "accuser", and "adversary", but it doesn't necessarily follow that where the word "adversary" appears in our Bible that the word refers to the devil. There are many adversaries, good and bad, so the context in which the word is used must govern how the word is to be accepted and understood.
It's a hallmark of an extreme degree of devil-worship that is found in churchdom, that for many, far too many, the first thought of anything negative is that it is, "of the devil". What they do is impute to "an evil spirit", a power, an omnipresence and omniscience that is entirely unscriptural.
We read in 1 Samuel 29.4, of a time when David was sojourning in Philistia. The Philistines were fearful of letting him go into battle with him. "Lest in battle he be an adversary (Hebrew, "a satan") to us." And again in 1 Kings 11.23, "God stirred up another adversary (Hebrew, "a satan"), Rezon the son of Eliadah".
It's fortunate that in both these cases the translators used the word adversary instead of satan . Can you imagine some of the weird doctrines churchdom could have developed and laden the people with, had the LORD not directed the proper translation? Exempli gratia: "Satan's name is David", "David was devil/demon possessed". "Rezon is another name for devil, and Eliadah is Satan's father" - when actually both David and Rezon are referred to simply as adversaries without any indication of whether or not a spirit is involved.
We know that David was a man after God's own heart, and regardless of Rezon's character it was God Almighty who raised him up - WITH A PURPOSE.
Believer, the "prince of this world" has nothing in us!! We ought not to think of him other than as a slave of our Most High God and Saviour, nor should we credit him with all the mischief in the world. We must NOT FALL DOWN from our total consciousness of God and His sovereignty to think in terms of duality (the Manichaean heresy) - with satan a god of evil and darkness and our God only as a deity of just the opposite. HE, THE CREATOR, IS LORD OF ALL! He controls ALL the interplay of good and evil so that all things are worked "after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1.11), and we give place ONLY TO HIM in worship and adoration.
To make a misstep, trip, and injure oneself doesn't mean that some invisible, demonic spirit lay in wait. (A leprechaun, perhaps?) Consider this: Should one for many years ignore common-sense health laws, abuse the body and defile it with all sorts of non-nutritious food and drink and then, blame their weakness, their diseased arteries, lungs and other vital organs on some special messenger from satan? "Old Nick's on my case" is the cry of many who have poisoned themselves with gluttonous ingestion of those things not suited for healthy living. Improper care of the body on loan to them results in sicknesses that they are quick to blame on "the enemy". This misdirected awe is NOT biblical and is beneath the dignity of the true worshipper.
He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. Not until we are fully rendered free of all this back door, twilight zone, worship of a non-god, an idol, shall we be able to FULLY worship God in spirit and in truth.
Jesus knew that the will of His Father would always be done when He began to tell His disciples that He'd be suffering a great many things, be slain, and be raised up on the third day. "Then Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Be it far from thee, LORD. This shall not be unto thee'. But He turned and said unto Peter, 'Get thee behind me satan: thou art an offense to me for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men'". (Matthew 16.22-23).
This is one of those passages in our Bible that has been grossly mis-used by those who choose to pursue the futile and God-demeaning path of devil-worship. These blind pantologists see the devil in Peter and because the King James Version, (as well as other translations) uses the word "satan", they take great care in using it as support for diabolic doctrines.
As previously pointed out the word "satan" signifies an "adversary". Clearly, Jesus was saying to Peter that Peter wasn't speaking as a friend but as an enemy, an adversary. F. Fenton's translation says, "Depart from Me, you enemy! You are a stumbling-block to Me; because you do not reflect upon the thoughts of God, but of men".
It's true: the carnal mind is hostile to God. (See Romans 8.7). The flesh doesn't cherish thoughts of the cross; but by the cross the flesh will be thoroughly dealt with. Many times we have "spoken as men", but that doesn't mean we are demon-controlled. No, it just means that we need our mind renewed so we can attest to "what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God". The CROSS brings an end to all carnal as well as satanic mindedness, and allows us to worship HIM for our deliverance, receiving the fullness of HIS LIFE in due time.
Man is inclined to worship God according to his revelation of Him and how he relates to Him concerning the "evil" that may befall man in his earthly journey, in addition to other mundane, unpleasant incidents common to flesh. Also bearing on this worship is how man perceives God in His dealing with sinners. Babylon's doctrines of eternal torment and helplessness produce a worship anchored in fear. The Pharisaical worship of "I'm better than he, so I deserve God's grace and love , and I obey the law, whereas he doesn't, and Oh boy! - I'm proud to have been accepted because of my goodness, etc, etc, etc," - is the pitiful condition suffered by many naming themselves after Christ. Whatever the state of our vision of worship, God must cleanse us of all false doctrines and traditions of man so that we can receive a revelation of HIS MERCY AND LOVE - unconditional and universal . Then we'll begin to worship Him out of love and adoration for His wondrous redemption.
It's sad that the darker our concept is of God, as a despot, an angry tyrant, the more limited and dark and fearful will be our worship.
The progressive unfolding revelation of God's grace, His love and mercy toward us is indeed marvelous. As we come to grasp, at least in a measure, that HE is truly sovereign, and are brought into a participating, living, union with Him in the heavenlies, we will no more FALL DOWN into duality and double mindedness where the devil is given place. Cleansed of devil consciousness, we shall unreservedly pour out our beings in purified worship of Our LORD, unmixed with self, the world, and that prince of darkness, the devil.
KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS!
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