For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12
In America today, there is a growing fascination with things of the occult. Harry Potter and Twilight are just two of the more popular book and movie series which portray sorcerers, witches, vampires and such as intriguing, beautiful and evil, all wrapped up in a slick, attractive package. To most in America, these characters are just that, characters in a story who have no real basis for reality in this world.
This is where America is mistaken. The demonic world is very real. The Bible talks about this world many times, (Romans 8:38, Matthew 8:31, 1 John 4:1). It is not something to be celebrated, glamorized or used for Hollywood profit. On the other hand, it is not something to be feared, if we have the Holy Spirit living within us. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4
Picture a world where you believe that spirits/demons inhabit trees, animals and other people. If a loved one grows sick and dies, it is not because of cancer or TB but because of a demonic curse. If your crops fail for lack of rain, it's because you didn't offer enough sacrifices to the local gods (Deuteronomy 32:17). You may perform any number of sacrifices, including your own children, in an effort to try to make the demonic powers happy (Psalm 106:37). You worship cows, as the Mahratta of India do, because you believe there are 330 million gods inside their stomachs. Your life is filled with fear, anxiety and a real awareness of a powerful spirit world.
This is reality for the vast majority of countries in the world. Much of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and even parts of Europe and South America live in fear of spirits forces and do their best to appease them.
The fact that Western Christians have little understanding or personal knowledge of demonic forces, I believe, stems from our privileged status in America. Yes, demonic activity is alive and well in America but it is much more subtle. Our country’s Christian heritage and large number of believing Christians has in many ways protected us from this harsh reality in so much of the world.
Unfortunately, this privileged status has caused us to disregard the devil, debating on our talk shows whether evil or the devil really exist. Satan is more than happy with that. When we glamorize demonic activity as in Harry Potter, Twilight and a myriad of other books, TV shows and movies, or view the devil as a little red man with a pitch fork, we are, in essence, not taking him seriously. We do not realize that we need to resist Satan and the demonic world (1 Peter 5:8, James 4:7) and that we must know how to wage war against him (Ephesians 6:13).
This is not only about Americans, though. We are told to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, sharing the love of Christ with the lost. How do we do this if we really don't believe or understand the demonic world that holds so much of earth captive? Hospital advice will not speak to a woman’s heart who believes that the reason she is infertile is that an evil spirit has brought this upon her. Agricultural advice will not speak to a farmer who believes that if he does not sacrifice precious cattle to an unseen demon, rain will not come. The preaching of peace and tolerance will not speak to a tribe who believes that a neighboring tribe has cursed them time and again.
In these instances, they need to see that the power of Christ is so much greater than the power of the demonic world with which they are very familiar. When this happens, when Christ is revealed as more powerful than Satan and his demons, a show of power takes place. I will share more about these power encounters in my next blog.
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