“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (Rom. 12:19).

Remember when Jesus told Peter: “Put your sword away!”(Matt. 26:52)?... or when He rebuked James and John who wanted to call fire down from heaven: “You know not what manner of spirit you are!” (Luke 9:55). God does not need our help, especially when it comes to administering ‘wrath’.

And please note- I am not talking about the way in which ‘those in authority’ operate and maintains order in this ‘natural’ world we live in today. (Rom. 12:1-7). I am speaking directly to those whose lives are centered around and are actively pursuing things that pertain to the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). I have serious concerns that many today seem to have forgotten, or maybe never learned that this kingdom Jesus came to proclaim...is ‘not of this world’; and that can be a hard adjustment to make for many today (John 18:36; Rom. 14:17).

We’ve been reviewing three major areas of study that I am concerned has been lacking in our foundational teachings when it comes to understanding our Christian faith, and those three areas pertain to The Law, The Flesh, and The Enemy.

The law that God set in place, still stands today (Gal. 3:17,19; Matt. 5:17). When laws are broken or transgressed, there are consequences that follow. Breaking those laws is called ‘sin’, or ‘lawlessness’ (1 John 3:4). So when Jesus told that man to ‘go and sin no more, or something worse will come upon you’, (John 5:14), He was cluing us in to how this spiritual kingdom operates (Gal. 6:7-8). Paul would later explain that we are living in a time where the ‘wrath of God IS (being) revealed...from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...” (Rom. 1:18). Hence, his insight offered to Timothy explaining just who exactly the ‘law’ is for- 1 Tim. 1:8-10.

So when I write or speak about the ‘flesh’ and the ‘enemy’, it is important to connect these dots of understanding to see how they are all connected to ‘the law’ (Rom. 8:7-8; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17). Everything about our sinful, flesh nature is in direct opposition to the nature and character of God. This is why we were ‘dead’ in sin prior to coming to Christ, as Eph. 2:1-3 lays out. We were previously separated from God, and the spirit of wickedness who influences the whole world actually operated IN us, working through our sinful flesh desires. (1 John 5:19; Acts 26:18)

This is the reason why we are to submit and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus as He begins to lead us to take up our own cross as we ‘put to death the deeds of the flesh’ (Rom. 8:13,4). Friends...this was never meant to be an ‘option’. Why do you suppose Paul warns us there in Gal. 5:19-21...that those who continue to live this way will “NOT...inherit the kingdom of God’?

I know of no other story in the OT that illustrates more effectively what has happened to many in the church-world today, than the story of King Saul who was instructed to ‘put to death’ all of the Amalekites, including their livestock (1 Sam. 15). He eased up along the way, caved to the will of the people and when confronted by Samuel, tried to spin it by explaining how they wanted to really throw an impressive worship service for God. And God was not impressed. In fact, because of Saul’s failure to truly repent, reminding him that ‘obedience was more important than sacrifice’ and that ‘rebellion was like the sin of witchcraft’ (22-23)...guess how God ‘punished’ Saul? He turned demon spirits loose on him to torment him (16:14-16). And this was not just an ‘old testament’ practice either... (Matt. 18:34-35; 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Tim. 1:20)

Saul failed to complete the ‘mission’; and do you know what killed him in the end? The very thing he was instructed to deal with early on- an Amalekite (2 Sam. 1:1-13). Now...go take a look at Rev. 3:1-3 and read what Jesus had to say to the church at Sardis- “you have a reputation of being alive, but I say you are dead”. “I’ve not found your works complete”. And unless they repent, how is Jesus going to ‘come upon them’ according to vs. 3 there? As a ‘thief’? And what do we know about what a ‘thief’ comes to do, as explained in John 10:10?

Friends...I so understand how this is hard to process, let alone accept and believe; but all I am doing is pointing out one Bible passage after another and how they all ‘fit together’ like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The problem we have is the picture this ‘puzzle’ is showing is nothing like the ‘picture’ most of us have been taught. Believe me...I ‘get it’. This is why I continue to lay it out day in and day out, with the exhortation to ‘study for yourselves’ to see if this is truth or not (Acts 17:11). And I am fully confident that if there be any truth to this, and you so desire to know the truth...the Holy Spirit will indeed bear witness and confirm these things to you as well.

I’m pretty sure most who have been reading here for any length of time are familiar with what the ‘fruit’ of that ‘old man’ looks like, and you find a detailed list in passages like Gal. 5:19-21; Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 1:29-31; Eph. 5:3-4; Col. 3:5-9; and 2 Tim. 3:2-5. But the area I would imagine is the most challenging for us to wrap our brains around is when it comes to the ‘enemy’, understanding how and why he is ‘allowed’ to remain and operate... especially when we open the door to him by breaking God’s laws.

Please know: I am no expert when it comes to the topic of ‘demonology’, nor am I fond of the term ‘exorcism’ given it’s flamboyant image from movies that come out of Hollywood. But what I do know is Jesus talked quite a bit about demon spirits, and even more importantly... He did something about them. This was what He was anointed and empowered to do, you know- Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18. So let’s dive back in to this topic...tomorrow, Lord willing.