From Darkness to Light

Ok, call me foolish. I still don’t get it. Why can’t we understand the obvious:

SATANIC FORCES (WITCHES, BRUJOS, SATANISTS, DEMONS, ETC.) OPPRESS CHRISTIANS! And the closer to God you are, the more you try to do what He wills, the fiercer and more persistent the attacks.

Many people wonder what exactly is oppression by demons or other satanic forces. Demon oppression can be relatively simple to see or very complex to actually understand. In the Bible, in the book of Matthew chapter 16 we have the following incident recorded:

Mt 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Jesus tells his disciples that the Pharisees are going to seize him and kill him. He also tells them that on the third day he is going to be raised back to life. Peter rebukes him, saying this could never happen. But Jesus rebukes Peter or, as it were, Satan who was oppressing Peter, by directly addressing the oppressor and not the oppressee. Jesus doesn’t throw Peter out, He tries to teach him to see the difference. He tells Peter that he has in his mind the things of men (pride, selfishness) and not the things of God. He says if we want to follow Him we must deny the things of men (pride, selfishness) and be prepared to suffer (take up our cross).

In yet another graphic example found in Luke chapter 22 we have this exchange:

Lu 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

Not to pick on Peter but here he is again. This time there is a discussion of who is the greatest disciple. Jesus explains a few things and then tells Peter that Satan has asked permission to oppress (demon oppression, satanic oppression) him. Interesting that Satan has to get permission but that’s another topic. Peter responds, mustering all the selfish pride he could find, saying he would go to prison and even die for his Lord! How noble! Jesus sadly tells him that he is about to deny he even knows Jesus.

How extraordinary that Peter does exactly the opposite of what he just said and denies Jesus, just hours after Jesus told him he would! How could this happen? You think it could never happen to you? Think again. Satan and his forces (demons, witches, brujos and the like) have other plans.

I think this is why we have such fear of Satan, forces of Satan and even God. We just don’t get it. Peter didn’t in these two examples by he became much stronger in The Lord because of these experiences. And so can we. If we just try to understand a few facts.

First, Satan is very powerful. But he is only as powerful as God has allowed. Remeber above he had to get permission to oppress Peter, and the same thing happened in the story of Job (which was by the way a demon oppression story). But still, Satan can possess and oppress people, subject to certain limitations. Even Christians.

Second, Satan is not omnipresent. That is he can’t be in two places at once. So he has forces, Satanic forces which help him with his work. The Satanic forces are like the military. They have different forms of service but with the same objective: destroy God’s people and defeat God’s plan. And like the military they have different jobs, different objectives and different appearances. Consider this.

The military have those in uniform and those in civilian clothes. Some have weapons and some have pencils. Some work on equipment and some fire weapons, while others cook food and wash clothes. But again, they all have the same objective.

Satan and Satanic forces are no different. There are demons who are not seen and witches who are seen. There are mediums and fortunetellers, spirit guides and channelers, ghosts and haunted houses. By which name they are called is unimportant. That they are the forces of Satan, oppressors for Satan is all that we need to know. And trust me when I say this, they are the demons from hell (or sent from Satan) to do his work, to oppress and possess, to lead people into sin and despair.

So then Satan relies on these other forms of evil to assist him in his work (seeking who he may devour 1Peter 5:8). For Satan or his forces to oppress or possess us we must give him access. And he and his forces love to work in our minds. Oh yes, he has free access to suggest things to you in your mind. How do you think he influenced Peter in the example above where Jesus said get thee behind me Satan? Consider this:

Jesus has just told Peter He is going to be killed and then raised back to life in three days. But Peter only hears that Jesus is going to be killed and nothing more. In Peters mind he thinks Jesus is going to defeat Rome, take over Israel and they will all live like royalty in Jerusalem. Surely dying is not part of Peters vision. So what happens as Peter is bewildered and confuses by what Jesus has just said?

Satan whispers quietly that this cannot be, and suggests Peter tell Jesus how faithful he is, and to encourage Jesus that this will never happen. Peter hears the suggestion and likes it (pride, selfish) and so immediately he says that this could never happen. He may as well have said “Thanks Satan!” before going on with his encouraging statement to Jesus. Anyway Jesus recognized from where it came and addressed Satan, the author of this thought. Peter was just being used, although willingly.

Did that happen? I think so. And it happens with us every day, all day long. The following incident just took place in our organization. See if you recognize the signature of Satan all over it.

One of our workers, we’ll call him Bob, had a misunderstanding, or maybe a difference of opinion with Greg, his boss. Greg had just become boss and Bob was maybe a little unhappy that he didn’t get the job.

Greg the boss instructed Bob to do something and Bob didn’t like it, so words were exchanged.  Feelings were hurt and the work stopped.  What happened?

Bob was passed over for promotion and was a little down.  Satan, a demon, an evil spirit (whatever form the force of Satan had) suggested in Bob’s mind that this was not fair.  Bob shook it off and tried to accept it.  A short time later Greg was thinking about what needed to be done and one of the forces of Satan put in his mind that Greg really hadn’t accomplished anything before Greg took over.  Thinking about it he made the statement that in the preceding several weeks, when Bob was in charge nothing had gotten done.  Bob was offended and immediately the demon suggested to Bob that he didn’t have to take that.  Bob flew off with some retort about God knowing the truth and that was good enough for him.  Greg was taken aback with the response when the demon said to him that Bob lacked respect for Greg and he didn’t have to take that.

You get the picture.  Pretty soon we have wives involved, father-in-laws involved and a multitude of hard feelings.  Score 1 for Satan and the forces of evil!  What is really sad is that we had just had a meeting warning of exactly this tactic.  And yet still the demon oppressed-but only with our help and permission.

We don’t realize that the oppression brought to us can also come indirectly from some outside source.  If the demon can’t get to us because we are wearing the full armor of God (Ephesians 6) rest assured he will use another source.  Our spouse, our children, our boss, our finances; he will attack from all sides.  What do we do?

Remember this.  Look in the first Bible example in Matthew 16 above and read verses 24 and 25.  Here they are:

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Follow Jesus, deny yourself and prepare to suffer.  Are you a Christian?  Did you give your life to God?  Then stop listening to the demons, stop reacting to the outside influences.  So what if you have been wronged?  So what if you are right?  So what if it’s your property?  IT’S NOT YOUR LIFE, IT’S GOD’S!  Turn the other cheek, be humble and understand that this is an attack of Satan, his demons and his workers.  It’s not your spouse, your boss, etc., but Satan working in them.  Don’t give in to the evil that seeks to destroy you.   Jesus said if you are willing to lose your life you’ll find it.  The fulfilled life!

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face;

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Musings of a Wretched Man. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.