Business As Usual Is Not Always

Glenn Beck is on television Saturday afternoons. I did not know that. I had to ice my back because I had been to the chiropractor and the adjustment caused some spasming. The best place to do that is in my recliner which just happens to be placed directly in front of the television. I took that as a sign I should turn on the television while I sat for twenty minutes.

All that is to say, Glenn Beck was on. He was talking about civil rights and the struggles in this country in the 1950's and '60's. I do not really remember much about that since there were probably fewer than 100 black people in Santa Maria at the time. We lived outside of town in the '60's and I recall about 5 black students in our high school of 1,700. Racial tensions simply were not a big deal. Well, maybe they were the day a group of Hispanic students barricaded themselves in the band room for fear of the ranchers' kids. Or maybe I was just clueless, but in any event, I hardly noticed any racial tensions.


There are a lot of people in the Santa Maria valley who have no idea there is a religious spirit keeping a lid on God's people. Unfortunately that includes most of the people in most of the churches. The problem with that is that traditional models of ministry will only go so far until that spirit is removed or at least muted. We mentioned that in passing in the previous post.

When we returned to southern California in 1987, we ultimately landed in Santa Maria where I had grown up. For those of you who do not know the story, moving here was the beginning of God doing the things He had shown me over a couple years. Those things culminated in a very specific word from the Holy Spirit's mouth to my ears, so to speak, that I needed to be in Santa Maria. You might want to revisit some of the very early posts if that is not quite enough of an explanation.

When we moved here, people were naturally curious and asked where we had come from. We told them we had been in Davis, California for seven years, but had just recently moved from the San Fernando valley. Several people commented the spiritual warfare in Davis must have been intense. We used to chuckle at that--not because they were wrong, but because they were right--about Davis. What they failed to realize was that everyone in Davis who knew about spiritual warfare knew what the battle involved. The newspaper regularly carried stories about gay rights, the pro-choice movement in town, and similar things.


During the time we were in Davis, we saw some significant victories. At some point in the future we may even find out what part we had to play in those victories. We saw the Scientologists move away because they could not afford to stay. We helped with the formation of a crisis pregnancy center which ultimately led to the end of Planned Parenthood in Davis. We saw more than a few people come to faith in Jesus. We had a part in the first annual, community, Easter, sunrise service organized with the cooperative efforts of the evangelical churches in the city. Some of those accomplishments are more significant than others, but all are verifiable. They really happened. No one can debate them.

When we recognize spiritual victories, or seek to find the causes of those things happening, the reasons are not usually obvious. In other words, why did the Scientologists run out of money when it seems Scientologists never run out of money? Why was the Crisis Pregnancy Center able to replace Planned Parenthood? We know the spirits behind those organizations had to go first. The spirits always have to be dealt with first.

I clearly remember my prayer when I realized the Lord was calling us to leave Davis and head south. I kind of half questioned, half complained that it seemed we really had not accomplished much. The Holy Spirit responded, "I did not send you here for the sake of Davis. I sent you here for the sake of David." I realized those seven years were just continuing education. In addition to the victories mentioned above, there are people from the church we started there who are in various forms of ministry in several different places. Sometimes the things that appear to be wasted motion to us are all part of God's well thought out plan.

At least a part of God's well thought out plan in Santa Maria right now is preparing people, and calling people he has already prepared to be part of bringing down the religious spirit. The first step in that is awareness of the problem, i.e., the existence of a religious spirit. There does not seem to be much else to say except to encourage us all to ask if we are part of the solution or if we even understand this is not business as usual.

The Workings of a Religious Spirit, Part 4

I do not really want to write this post. I am not at all sure I can pull it off without sounding overly harsh. Then again, the people reading this blog primarily fall into two camps. For the most part you will give us a fair hearing. We appreciate that and take it as a sacred charge to only be writing the truth as we understand it. The other group is reading with a critical eye because they think we are writing about them. They cannot afford to be wrong in matters of faith and practice so they have to find fault with the writing or the writer. Regardless of which camp you belong to, may we assure you, this is not about you. If, however, you should feel uncomfortable with yourself over anything you read here, we suggest you seek the Lord to find the real reason for your discomfort.

"Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth..." (2 Timothy 3:8) There were religious spirits working even in Egypt thousands of years ago. Moses had to deal with them. The magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh's court had religion bottled up and packaged for their greatest good. When he should have been letting God's people leave Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart because his religious leaders convinced him Moses was not part of the religious elite. That was true. Moses was coming in the name of I Am to set God's people free from their bondage to the Egyptians. God always comes to set his people free from bondage. He is working on that in the Santa Maria valley right now.

Let us be precise about what was going on. Perhaps we will see a parallel or even two between the religious spirit Moses confronted and the one we are facing. The religion of Egypt was controlled by a group the Bible calls magicians and sorcerers. This is done lest we be confused about who is the good guy in this historical account. Jannes and Jambres are traditionally thought to be the leaders of these magicians and sorcerers. By way of their magic arts, this group was able to convince Pharaoh they were the ones to whom were given the power of God in the nation of Egypt. Along comes Moses telling them I Am has sent me to tell you to let Israel go. Pharaoh had to ask who is this I Am, and who is Moses, and why would he let the unpaid laborers who were building the infrastructure of Egypt simply leave.

Moses had a word from God. Pharaoh had a country that needed cheap labor. Jannes and Jambres had a religious structure that garnered its power by being a closed system that maintained the status quo. They resisted the truth. We know the end of the story. God had to finally destroy Egypt and kill the firstborn in all their houses before Pharaoh was willing to send the Hebrews away. Even then he had second thoughts and went after them with his whole army. Again, we know the end of that story. The words of warning for us follow immediately, "but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all..." (vs. 9) Religious leaders who perpetuate a closed religious system hit a glass ceiling. They do not understand why they are not making any more progress than they are. It is clear from these verses the reason is they resist the truth. The problem, as we know, is they cannot see the truth because they are blinded by a religious spirit.

There are lots of other places we could go in talking about the workings of religious spirits, and perhaps we will reprise this series in the future, but there are other things we would like to teach that might fill in some blanks first. Stick with us for one more manifestation of a religious spirit and we will move onto something more fun.

"...who suppose that godliness is a means of gain..." (1 Timothy 6:5) Many people reading those words will doubtless think we are about to indict the word of faith teachers. In truth we probably have less of an axe to grind with most of them then with certain other groups. In fact most of them seem to be outside the influence of religious spirits so they are of no concern in this case. The reason our minds go there is because we have mostly been taught that the gain Paul is talking about here is strictly, or at least primarily, financial.

L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the heretical Scientology cult (guess how we feel about Scientology) is purported to have said the best way to make a lot of money is to start a religion. He then went on to prove his hypothesis by becoming a wealthy man. We have never found there to be a great deal of money in the business of religion, but perhaps that is because we were never very good at it. In any event, gain cannot be seen as simply dollars in the bank or the worldly things money can buy. It is actually better summed up as "more". This deception of a religious spirit thinks more is better, more money, more people, more buildings, more buses, more books authored, more Cd's distributed, etc. Hear me on this, there is nothing wrong with any of that--unless it leads to arrogance, which it certainly can. A byproduct of doing the right things before God is his material blessing. Therefore, we cannot simply look at a person's material substance and judge whether he is being influenced by a religious spirit. A person who is so influenced will, probably sooner than later, give himself away. Just as a gambler with a tell, this person will brag, as humbly as he can, about the people he ministers to, the money his ministry generates, or the building project he is planning. There will be a smugness about him that cannot be explained away simply as a personality trait. Did we mention he is not very good at receiving counsel from anyone who has not reached his level? That is all we are going to say about that. We could give examples, but we will not--at least not in the blog.