"In order for you to impact your city you must identify and break down the ruling principalities that may be hindering the Gospel there. The more common principalities in the western world would include the religious spirit, mammon, pride, and freemasonry to name a few. Ask God to give you wisdom and discernment as you prepare to deal with local and regional principalities." (Os Hillman, "The Queen of Heaven" November 1, 2010)
Occasionally, as regular readers know, we are questioned as to whether we know what we are doing in this blog. The questions range anywhere from, "What makes you think there is a religious spirit over the Santa Maria valley"? to "Why do you think you have the authority to challenge a ruling spirit anyway?" Then sometimes we come across a quote like the one above that seems to answer both questions. We are not so naive as to believe that those who read these words will embrace the battle, or even change their minds about the battle. However, this is something that needs to be said to remind believers and skeptics alike (and us too) that we are fighting a real fight and things will not be quite right until the enemy is put to flight.
We think we have our facts right about the following observations. If you have better information, please comment here or contact us another way. We participated in a prayer walk of repentance with the Pentecost Walk ministry several weeks ago. It was a rainy, but not too cold afternoon when something like 200 of us walked from the Santa Maria Foursquare Church to city hall to participate in the prayer. Tom Demaree was restarting his ministry after a hiatus due to various circumstances. He felt Santa Maria was the place he needed to do the restart. He did. We did. That was it as far as we know.
Then just a couple weeks ago, Tom repeated the event in southern San Luis Obispo county. The estimate I heard of the number of people who participated went as high as possibly 3,000 people. Yes, ten times or so the number of people who participated in Santa Maria. Any guesses on why there was such a dramatic difference in the numbers? We could give some credit to the weather. It was nicer the second time. Perhaps it was because it was the second time and the prayer walks had begun to gather momentum? We would like to suggest the possibility, just for your consideration, the difference might it have to do with a religious spirit keeping a lid on anything spiritual going on here.
Where to go from there? We can give you all the logical and reasonable arguments as to why the presence of a religious spirit is the only possible answer. That still would not satisfy those who do not want to embrace the idea. We wonder if it is even worth making the following points, but we do have the space so why not?
Maybe there were so many more people at the walk because there are some large churches in southern San Luis Obispo county, including a legitimate mega-church with thousands of attendees weekly. Use that rationale and you are making our point. We do not have any really prominent ministries. That is not to say they are not significant in God's economy. All of them are. I wonder how many of those ministries are even known outside Santa Barbara county? Perhaps some of them would be had we already broken the back of the religious spirit.
There is only a quarter-mile, wide riverbed separating the counties. Why would we have a religious spirit and they do not? Spirits, evil or good, are always in subjection to the rules of man, including to the boundaries we draw. We do not know what the ruling spirits might be in San Luis Obispo county. That is not really our business. There is not any point in concerning ourselves with what someone else is or is not doing.
We have often said the worst thing that can happen to a person is to be right and to have the majority, or anyone else, convince him he is wrong. Absent any evidence to the contrary, we are standing firm in the belief that a religious spirit is affecting every individual church and Christian ministry in northern Santa Barbara County--TheChurchInSantaMariaCA. Ultimately we will win. Agreement always helps, but if you cannot agree, why argue about about it? Truth always proves itself.
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Certainly there are religious spirits everywhere. This is the way it will be until Jesus comes. I recently came across an interesting verse, Luke 4:13, "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time." Even after Jesus resisted every temptation the scripture indicates the devil would be returning at some point. (Of course, we knew that already.) However, as long as a believer focuses on this or that religious spirit he or she remains in defeat. For the rest of our lives until Jesus comes you & I will need to resist the influence of the enemy in whatever form it takes. Let's say for sake of argument we get hundreds of people to "defeat" this religious spirit, what then? Massive revival? Maybe -- I don't know. The point is the devil is always working. We just have to realize he is a defeated foe -- not defeated by us but defeated by Jesus! Praise the Lord! I plead with you to give it up, my friend!
ReplyDelete"For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world...and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12. God did not keep it a secret that there is a spiritual battle going on. Why it is so heavy in Santa Maria is beyond me. But I have to ask you this...Why would we give it up when so many people are dying, not physically, but spiritually? Even those who believe in Jesus have somehow missed the point...People may have invited Christ into their lives, but what about the Holy Spirit? How else are we to fight this battle?
ReplyDelete"As for us, we can't help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation - a salvation that came through the Spirit [Holy Spirit] who makes you holy and your belief in the truth [Jesus] He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News, now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
John 3:16 says that "God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." Jesus came to this earth so that I could be set free from the bondage of my past and the generations that came before me - and so that I could have abundant life - not a life of mediocrity. Do you see a lot of abundant lives in Santa Maria? I sure don't. I see a town full of hurting people, characterized by an outpouring of destructive behavior. These hurting ones don't really understand the full magnitude of what God did for them by sending His son, and what Jesus did by following the will of His Father, and the salvation that was accomplished through this for them.
One more point - I feel called to this battle. It is not something I imagined - I am most definitely called by God to fight this battle here in this town at this time. If I choose not to, I am outside of God's perfect plan for my life. If I choose to give up, I will miss out on all that He has for me. And because He has called me and countless others, I am confident that His glory will be made known in this place. It will be whether I choose to participate or not - but I want to see it all!!!
Well, yes, the call is to defeat the religious spirit so revival can break out. Our call here is simply to expose the spirit. Since I do not know who the author of the above comment is, I must assume he or she does not know me very well. I do wonder, however, who works to discourage a Christian answering a call to fight alongside Jesus in spiritual battle?
ReplyDeleteIt is widely accepted that the Israelites were God’s chosen people. Because of their status, God promised them a messiah – prophesied about throughout the Bible. Isaiah is full of details about who the messiah would be and how He would come. Even after Jesus came to the earth as a man, and fulfilled every one of the prophecies, the Jews still rejected Him as their Messiah. In their waiting, they became complacent and sat on their hands still waiting for their messiah to show up. They were not convinced, even though Jesus fulfilled every last detail written about first His coming. There is a well-known story about Jesus going into the temple and, having a righteous anger, He said, “You’ve turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves.” One could say these leaders had become comfortable in the everyday ceremony of their faith (religious spirit?). I’m not saying that’s what is happening in the Santa Maria Valley, but it does seem as though there are a lot of people sitting on their hands, waiting. It seems to me thirteen guys (Jesus and His twelve disciples) started the first revival, opening up God to the masses. They did not depend on the traditional pomp and circumstance of what had been known; what they did was different and new, and sparked a fire that blew the roof off of God’s chosen people. Familiarity breeds complacency, and we are never supposed to be complacent with our worship or faith in God. You can’t just wait around. Jesus sent us a helper in Holy Spirit – we have to do our part in the battle. Get off our hands. I strongly encourage you to keep moving forward, and not to listen to anyone who tells you to just wait. Of course this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
ReplyDelete"God will make this happen, for He who calls you is faithful." – 1 Thessalonians 5:24