-Posessed by the Spirit of Man

by Brett Jacobsen

Although Satan and his fallen angels pose a definite threat to the church and world alike, they are by no means the greater enemy of God and man. They do have a heavy arsenal of weapons of mass deception and according to New Testament scripture, the ability to possess certain human beings which have opened a way for them to enter in. However, no fallen angel (devil, demon etc) whether it be, Lucy himself or any one of his sheepish friends, has been made in the image and likeness of God, therefore their power is very limited on its own. 

Statistically speaking, if only one third of the angels fell with Lucifer to the earthly realm before any men walked the earth, it would seem that now with the earths’ population exceeding 6 billion people we may be giving to much credit to the demonic hoard. It doesn’t seem feasible that the devil’s army has grown over time, as without a natural body procreation would not be possible. Satan is not a god, he cannot create new followers. Yes they have obviously become more cunning and effective over the years but the statistics definitely don’t put them as the biggest threat.

Inherited Evil

If the demonic realm is not as powerful and extensive as we have imagined then there must be something else that has taken evil into all new levels of effectiveness. Although it was the serpent in the garden coaxing Adam and Eve into a diet of sin, once sin took root in the heart of man it rapidly progressed from death to death. One generation down the line we see self righteousness, dead works, jealousy, deceit, murder and more of the like. It wasn’t too long before God was ready to destroy His whole creation.

Romans chapter 1 speaks of those who “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened”. It goes on to say that God “gave them up to” v 24 “uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,” v 26 “vile affections:” and v 28 “a reprobate (worthless) mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

The fruit of man’s humanistic rebellion is listed out in the remainder of the chapter as:

v 23-25 idol worship, v 26-27 lesbianism and homosexuality, v 29-31 unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.

Not to mention the works of the flesh found in Galatians chapter five: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft (yes witchcraft), hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like.

No Help Required

It would seem that man has the whole business of evil down to a fine art when just left to himself. Besides, if a fallen angel can turn so wicked and debased just from being cast away from the Lord, then it stands to reason that man’s fallen spirit can be as wicked and evil without possession or the assistance of a demon. The Bible states the reason for Lucifer’s fall was the pride of wanting to be God. It’s interesting that fallen man also has found himself desiring and deciding to be god for his own self rather than yielding to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

In fact we even have many a doctrine floating around the “church” at present, that are not only half truths but humanistic inventions from the deceitful heart of man, they put the reins of our lives into our own human hands and put ourselves and our wellbeing as the centre of the universe.

It doesn’t help the matter that there are demons to assist man in his deluded demise. We absolutely should not be “ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices” however there is a more subtle, deceptive and powerful evil spirit at work in the world and church alike and that is the humanistic un-yielded spirit of man. It is infused with a god type power and motivated out of a fallen, selfish, pride filled drive that not only leads to sin and death but also justifies itself in the process.

Spiritual Warfare

For the sake of balance I must point out at this point that the Bible is very clear that we do wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph 6:12. These celestial pests are an added bonus of evil that not only ravage people when not yielded to Christ but also strongly resist the set apart saints.

Although spiritual warfare does involve wrestling with devils, the more consistent daily warfare, according to the New Testament, is man’s struggle with his fallen nature, and yes we are talking about believers.

It seems that the main part of the fight against demons is for Christians to daily “cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” Rom 13:12, or in other words, to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” Rom 13:14 

Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians addressed the practice of spiritual warfare like this:

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.     2 Cor 10:4-6

There are some important words in this passage that need to be brought to light in order to get a fuller picture of what Paul was presenting. Some of these are:

v4  pulling down / kathairesis - demolition; extinction:–destruction
      strong holds / ochuroma - to fortify, through the idea of holding safely; a castle

v5  casting down / kathaireo - kathairesis, to lower as with violence, demolish, destroy
      imaginations / logismos - reasoning
      high thing / hupsoma - elevated barrier
      thought / noema - a perception, i.e. purpose, the intellect

So these verses may be better read like this:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (natural), but mightily powerful through God to the pulling down, demolition, extinction and destruction of strong holds of the mind, which are like fortified castles 5 Casting down and demolishing with violence imaginations and reasoning, and every elevated barrier that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought, perception and purpose of the intellect to the obedience of Christ;         

As we can see the greatest spiritual war is that of man’s daily battle to submit his mind, reasoning, thoughts, perceptions, will and purposes to Him who sits on the throne. Romans 7:18:25 shows clearly the gravity of the battle, along with the way of victory through submission to Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1-6 goes on to clearly point out that a mind yielded to the things of Gods’ Spirit is the only path to life and freedom.

Subtle strategy

Yes, Satan will try to possess as many people as he can from amongst the human race and he will also try to convert many to Satanism and other blatantly evil practices.

However, his most subtle and effective strategy to see the multitudes drop off into torments is to co-operate with and coerce mans evil, rebellious, dark, fallen nature into the place of self rule and other self driven traits, and for the most part, just leave man to do his thing.

It has been said that “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he didn’t exist”. In actuality the greater deception these days seems to be passing all the credit for evil onto poor old lake of fire bound Lucifer, instead of man realizing his rebellious ways and turning to Jesus daily in broken submission.

The mark of man

The ends of the world are upon us as we see the prophetic Word of God unfolding before our eyes.

Although the devil has a few last kicks before he’s cast headlong into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, only to be let out and then booted into the lake of fire, man is the one causing all the trouble in the apocalyptic finale. The well known 666 is the mark of man not the devil, it is a symbol of man’s ownership of himself which we know to be God’s business alone.

Even the great battle of Armageddon is a war between the Antichrist and his armies, the 200 000 000 Asian foot soldiers and the King of Kings and His saints. Man’s delusion is so strong, that, even when the sky cracks open and Jesus comes riding on a white horse with multitudes of flying horsemen behind Him, he still thinks he’s in control.

So let us lay aside the leading and ownership of the spirit of man, and desire and work to become completely yielded to and possessed by the Spirit of God. Anything short of this is religion and the bondage of being possessed by the spirit of man.

REPRINT AGREEMENT

Duplication and re-transmission of this writing is permitted provided that complete source and website information for CHRIST IS ALL is included.
Thank you.

www.christisall.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 15th, 2005 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Prayer / Worship, Living Christianity, Brett Jacobsen's teachings. 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.