A Generation out of Control

There's never been a generation like this one. A time filled with education but without truth. It is a time of great promise but without hope. Everywhere we look, people are seeking answers from psychiatrists and self help books and psychics. Husbands and wives having lost all hope run to lawyers to solve marital problems. The struggle to find some peace at home so often leads to divorce which brings more guilt and more hopelessness. Mothers are killing their own children for the sake of selfish convenience. Men and women confused as to their own sex. Out of control are they even in the face of AIDS and certain death. We are witnessing a generation out of control with all kinds of addictions, seeking to medicate the pain of grief, sorrow, and endless loneliness.

From Columbine High School to Pearle Mississippi, across our land we watch in horror the epidemic of kids killing kids as a result of a hopeless rage. Children walking into our schools dazed in a trance, loaded for war with an appetite for the shedding of Christian blood. Our prisons are filled with children who could not find any reason to live straight. Our graveyards are filled with the bodies of children that lived in such defeat they could not find a reason to live. Beautiful young girls, their hearts filled with anorexic confusion, believing a lie that they are fat commit slow suicide as their bodies waste away headed for the graveyard. Children filled with such guilt and heartache that they cut themselves to relieve their spiritual pain. Truly our generation is the generation that will be remembered as the hopeless generation.

Pulpits without Power

Even the pulpit is too often a place for psychoanalyzing rather than the preaching of the Word of God. Preachers filled with prescription drugs find no peace within themselves. A deluge of dark desperation and depression has baptized those who should be living in great joy and victory. The more society looks for answers the more confused and lost it becomes. Education has not solved our search for truth. More people carry degrees today than ever and yet people live in hopelessness. When we have a problem we throw money at it, and it doesn't solve a thing. Our politicians pontificate declaring they have the answers so we will re-elect them to their own selfish carnal realities. The tragedy is we don't seem to know how to appropriate the victory that is ours in Christ.

A Revival of the Supernatural

We find ourselves in the midst of a revival of interest of the supernatural. From physic hotlines to government studies of the paranormal, people everywhere are searching for spiritual answers. From religions of witchcraft to blasphemous rituals in the church, we see a strange marriage between the holy and the unholy. We read with shock when our First Lady, Nancy Reagan sought answers from the world of the psychics and spiritual mediums. Well publicized was the spiritual encounter Hillary Clinton had with Eleanor Roosevelt through the medium of a spiritist. And just think the Harry Potter Generation is just ahead. Billy Graham has said, “Certainly, the activity of Satan is evident on every side. We can see it in the wars and other crises that affect all men daily. We can also see it in the attacks of Satan against individual members of the body of Christ. Demonic activity and Satan worship are on the increase in all parts of the world. The Devil is alive and more at work than at any other time. The Bible says that he realizes his time is short, his activity will increase.”

Freedom is the Church's Spiritual Birthright

Because of the onslaught of Satan's attacks, it is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore the spiritual battle in which we find ourselves. From dabbling in witchcraft and idolatry to sexual perversion and bitterness many of those in the church who should be living in victory far too often unnecessarily fall into Satan's clutches. For too long the church has tried to find answers to her spiritual problems from the world that has no answers.

Charles H. Spurgeon said it well, “He (the believer) must wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He must have weapons for his warfare-not carnal-but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. He must go forth to attack the castles of the Enemy, and to put them down, to drive the Canaanite out of the land.”

It is in the believer's birthright in Christ Jesus to be free. Deliverance is simply the Holy Spirit sanctifying His church to live the life of victory and freedom that has been bought at Calvary. Christ is our deliverer! It is our Lord Jesus who came to set the captives free. It is our Lord Jesus who came to destroy the works of the Devil. Luke 4:18, I John 3:8

Spiritual Warfare is Not about Demons
It's about God Who is Almighty

Spiritual warfare is not about demons, although they are involved in the evil workings of the Enemy. Spiritual warfare is first and foremost about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and through the Church to accomplish His will on the earth as it is in Heaven. The Invisible War is not about the Devil or demons. It's about our mighty God who is Lord of all. The Invisible War is not about sin and sorrow. It is about the One who has given His life that all might be forgiven. The Invisible War is not about us, it's about Christ. It's all about Him. God created us for Him. We exist for Him. We live for Him. We preach for Him. Our song is about Him! We breathe for Him. He is Lord! He has come to set the captives free! He came to free us to Himself; free to do His will! Free to be what He has created! Praise His Holy Name!

All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all!

Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all!

O that with yonder sacred throng We at His feet may fall!
We'll join the everlasting song, And crown Him Lord of all!