After church one day a few years ago, a solid Christian woman began to be overcome with feelings of extreme
sadness. A few of us, my wife included, went with her into a room to intercede for
her away from the crowds.
As we prayed, a demonic
presence appeared to manifest. She started to growl, drool and
claw at the floor like a wild animal. Honestly, I was kind of freaked out. Though we eventually saw her receive
deliverance from the evil spirit, within a few weeks it happened again. When I got a call about her experiencing her third bout with the demon, I
sensed God telling me to ask her if she had been harboring bitterness and
resentment toward a certain family member.
Unfortunately, this is not the only time I
have ministered to brothers and sisters in Christ where prolonged bitterness and an unwillingness to forgive allowed evil spirits to have their
oppressive way. Sometimes these Christians heard audible, evil, and berating
voices, and one believer even heard voices telling him to do harmful, malevolent things
to others.
In Ephesians
4:26-27, Paul makes sense of this situation. He writes, “Be angry, and
yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the
devil an opportunity.” The
word translated “opportunity” in this verse (topon) has a lexical range
that includes “place,” “region,” “seat,” and “opportunity.” Jesus says in
John 14:2 that He is going to God
the Father to prepare a topon, a dwelling place, for His disciples.
So basically, remaining bitter with
someone and refusing to forgive him or her is like handing a thief the key to
our house. Specifically, Paul tells us this thief is the devil, and the house
for which the key is made is our body. To be sure, handing over the key to our
house is not the same as signing over the deed to that person. Just because
someone has a key to our house does not mean he or she owns it. We still own
the house.
If you have been born again, God hasbought you with a price and your body has become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
The devil cannot own or possess something that is owned or possessed by God.
However, if you have given away the key to your house to him, he has the
ability to cause much damage to your life. Again, as Jesus said, “The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Knowing this, why
would you willingly give the key to your house to the thief?
Though what you just read may be outside of your tradition, the
early Christians affirmed that unrepentant Christians can be oppressed and
demonized by evil spirits.
Holy Scripture teaches us that there are certain invisible enemies
that fight against us. And it commands us to arm ourselves against them. … We
receive certain initial elements and (as it were) seeds of sins from those things
that we use agreeably to nature. However, when we have indulged them beyond
what is proper and have not resisted the first movements to intemperance, then
the hostile powers size the occasion of this first transgression. They incite
and press us hard in every way. They seek to extend our sins over a wider
field. – Origen 225CE, ANF Volume 4, p. [CD-ROM]
Thankfully, all of the individuals
experienced full and lasting deliverance once they repented of the sins of bitterness
and unforgiveness. They experienced the Spirit of God cast the evil spirits out from their bodies through the power, authority, name and blood of Jesus
Christ. These Christians felt incredible spiritual and physical relief as a
result of the repentance and deliverance that had taken place. One of them was
finally able to start having a full night’s sleep after roughly two decades of
restlessness.
What about you? Has a root of bitterness been allowed to run deep in
your life for too long? Is there someone you need to forgive?
No comments:
Post a Comment