So as I made the case for in yesterday’s message…we come to discover that we all have our own unique ‘story’ when it comes to how we met or encountered God for the first time; that is…assuming you have already. For others…that story remains to be written. But we can classify those stories as a ‘personal experience’; and while personal experiences can be wonderful and life changing…that is all they are- a personal experience.

It is a waste of time to try and compare your story with someone else’s because God has His own unique way in meeting us where we are at, and we are told that He first has to ‘draw us’ (John 6:44); but that is no guarantee that we will respond to His drawing favorably. I do believe we have a ‘choice’ in the matter (Joshua 24:15) and we can opt to remain in darkness (John 3:19-20) if that is indeed what we ‘love more’.

But ‘coming to Jesus’ is a ‘starting place’, not a final destination where we have ‘arrived’. I think the church world at large would do a greater service for new converts to avoid making it all about who or when or how a person ‘got saved’, as if that was some golden ticket that grants you access into heaven…and instead place more emphasis on what it means to abide in Jesus,(after you come to Him with all your heart) and commit one’s life to learning His voice and then following Him. (John 10:27; 15:1-8). There is no point in ‘calling Him Lord’…if we are not going to ‘do what He says’. (Luke 6:46).

As I have shared on more than one occasion when sharing my own story with others…was how God used a rather unique experience in my life to drive home a very important ‘first lesson’ to me…literally within 10 hours after making that first step in committing my life to Him in the early spring of 1980. Some of you are probably familiar with it as I have shared it here before, and will briefly do so again for the sake of others who may not be familiar with what happened to me.

After I had prayed with a gentleman who had been ‘sowing/watering the seed of God’s word’ in my heart…I knew I was ready to take that first step and prayed…asking Jesus to come into my life/heart, to reveal Himself to me and to lead me in the path that He wanted to make known. Then, off to work I went; and talk about a flood of doubts and skepticism and questions bombarding my mind. It really took me by surprise, and the confusion only increased when after I shared with this person what I was being overwhelmed with. He smiled and made it known that whenever a person turns their life over to God…that the ‘devil’ will do everything he can within his limited power to dissuade and divert our decision to follow Jesus. Trust me…when this idea of a legitimate ‘devil’ entered the conversation…I was pretty convinced in that moment that I had waded into ‘cult territory’.

It was one thing to watch popular movies of the day that centered around ‘demons and exorcisms’…but I was not ready to buy into the fact that they actually existed; that is until I got home later that night after work. As my nightly routine went, I pulled out a ‘join’ (weed/pot) to ‘catch a buzz’ before retiring for the evening. There was a brief moment of pause or hesitation before I lit up wondering if this was something I should do now since I had just committed my life to Jesus. Who knows why I even paused to question that since nobody had suggested I shouldn’t, nor had I ever given it any thought before. Then I heard this little voice within assure me there was no problem smoking it since ‘God made it’. Sounded good to me, but after just two hits, something took a dramatic turn that led to one of the most horrifying experiences I’ve ever had. I’ll spare you the details and just tell you that God used that experience to ‘open my eyes’ to a spiritual world of evil and darkness that I had never known existed.

After a night of tossing and turning in torment, I woke the next morning in a fetal position clutching my newly acquired Bible and was overwhelmed with gratitude to realize I was still alive and seeing the light of a new day shine in to my room. My knees hit the floor and I poured out my heart of thanks to God for sparing me and making known that I was now in uncharted waters and had much to learn. Lesson #1 in my new walk with Jesus was that this physical world that I had grown up in had another layer or dimension to it that I would do well to sit up and make note of, and that spiritual forces of darkness and evil were a ‘real thing’. And it wasn’t like God was telling me to ‘fear them’, rather to be cognizant of them and to keep my heart and mind on Him. Can I just tell you now in hindsight…this was one of those lessons that you can easily forget or dismiss over time…and have to be ‘re-taught’?

Scripture does not admonish us to ‘ignore the devil’, rather we are to ‘resist him’, to ‘give him no place’…since we are ‘not ignorant of his schemes’ (James 4:7; Eph. 4:27; 2 Cor. 2:11). And trust me when I tell you that Ephesians 6:12 is one of those verses that can become calloused-like when we hear/read it all the time…but then fail to live as if we believe it.

We are taught in scripture that the ‘whole world lies under the sway/influence of the wicked one’, but it is the gospel of Christ that ‘opens our eyes and turns us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God’ (1 John 5:19; Acts 26:18). Friends, this is not figurative or poetic language; on the contrary…this is truth that if we fail to fully grasp and understand, it will be to our own peril. And let me say it again…God has no problem with these ‘powers of darkness’ that plague the earth today; we do…if we are not truly abiding in Jesus. You might read 1 John 5:18 real quick.

I know it’s tempting to want to ask why God even allows them to exists when He presumably has it within His power to remove them; and He could do that at any moment in time. But He chooses not to…for now. The reason being? He uses them to fulfill His plans and purposes; all the more reason to abide in Him and allow the Holy Spirit to direct your steps. God did not call us to follow Him as if we were in some spiritual version of the ‘Hunger Games’ and this is all for His entertainment. God sent Jesus to deliver us from the power of Satan and darkness that had bound us all prior to ‘seeing the light’ (Eph. 2:1-3; John 3:36, 17-18). These ‘powers of darkness’ is what God uses to carry out His ‘wrath’ on the earth today towards all the sin and rebellion that exists.

This would be the same ‘wrath’ that John the Baptist warned was coming and was already here. (Matt. 3:7,10). And even more significantly…look what Paul writesis now being ‘revealed’ to those who call upon the name of the Lord, in Romans 1:18. Paul says God’s wrath “is being revealed”…not ‘withheld’ or ‘done away with’, but is happening now; and what does it say it is coming upon or against? “ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness”.

That word ‘reveal’ means to ‘come to light’ or to ‘have the cover removed’ in order for us to ‘see it’. Friends…it could/would/should make a life-changing impact on our lives if we truly saw all the implications in this one revelation of truth. When Jesus said to ‘go and sin no more less something worse come upon you’ (John 5:14), He wasn’t playing around. Nor did He suggest that continuing to sin would have no serious consequences if you had ‘accepted Him as your personal Savior’. It is way past time for the church world to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to ‘open the eyes of our understanding’(Eph. 1:18); and when He does…you will begin to look at this world through a whole different set of lenses; trust me on that one.