Spiritual Warfare for skeptics

The best movie quote of the last 25 years: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The second greatest trick?:  letting the world believe they can ignore it. 

There's a cost to sleeping.

There's a cost to burying your head in the sand.

There's a reason Jesus told us to stay awake.

There's a generation that will be the last during the Book of Revelations unfolding.  

Part of that generation will watch and hide in terror - but God's elect will see clearly, seek and find, perform exploits and ultimately, lead the charge against the systems working to destroy us.

And yes, there's someone that's walking, lurking and waiting for the right time to steal from you, kill you and destroy the world around you - including everything you've built and love.

The enemy isn't just intelligent, he's evil.  He uses that intelligence to deceive and manipulate people by giving you thoughts - "fiery darts" that aren't your own, but feel like they are.  

As for things getting better - we hope they do, but the Bible isn't the only warning we have as many other religious and secular beliefs about our collective demise are all converging.  Pride and arrogance make people think we can change our ways and continue on forever - naively thinking we'll have more time.  

Sorry to burst your bubble, but no matter what the future holds - we're all going to end at some point and following Jesus and the Bible give us the best hope for living life on our feet in victory and hope eternal.

Everything we're telling you is based on the Bible.  If you don't believe us, read it for yourself.  

Our stance heading into 2022...Pray for the best, prepare for the worst.

Revival on the way up  - and revival on the way down.

God said you were never meant to.  

In fact the harder you try, the worse and more discouraging things will probably get.

We get it.  We all spent years and different seasons trying to walk this out on our own strength or intelligence.  

We tell ourselves it's just a matter of finding the right approach or trying harder next time.

The enemy knows you're not capable of going through life without God and he has limitless ways to apply his deception.  The hope is that you aren't deceived...the tragedy is that many will be.

Where do you think depravity comes from?  

Hardship finds us all in every way imaginable.  

Some people have family history with vices or issues - and you think that couldn't be a generational curse?  You think science has answers and treatment?  

Do you think drug addicts want to be in the throes of using and abusing drugs?   Tell that to the families of people that lost loved ones due to overdose.

Do you think alcoholics want to be swinging back and forth from angry drunk to happy drunk to passed out drunk?  Tell that to the spouse, kids and loved ones who live in fear of what their person will do next.

Do you think sex workers have better options but choose to be abused and violated by strangers and sell themselves unimaginably farther below their value?  

Do you really think the hardship you've faced that's made you stronger - couldn't have been caused by evil?  

Do you really think intelligent evil doesn't put things in motion, step back and laugh as lives are ruined and lost?  

Do you really think that spiritual evil isn't hoping for your utter destruction because, you can't believe in what you can't see?  

That's a shame because the last time we checked, the evil in this world has been accelerating human depravity and the pace is only quickening. 

We're here to tell you that there's more than hope...that Jesus died and rose again so that we wouldn't have spirits of fear - but rather spirits of power, love and a sound mind.  

There's no such thing as faith by proxy, or having someone believe enough for you.  You can't ride someone's coat tails into heaven or get a pass just because you loved someone that has faith.

All of us will have to answer to God alone.  

All of us will have to attest to our behavior, deeds and even the thoughts we didn't act on.  

Jesus is the only person we can call on to stand in our place, almost like an attorney.

And only people with a direct relationship with Jesus can call on Him for that.

Perfect example - sweat equity.  

If you've ever worked side by side with someone that respects your time and effort, you've probably come to appreciate their effort and they in turn, hopefully, appreciated your effort.

Nobody had to teach you this, and God is no different.

In fact we believe God engrained the notion of sweat equity into us and by doing what the Bible says - by engaging in Spiritual Warfare, we believe God's written promises give us favor in battle because we're co-laboring with Him.  

Just read any of Psalms 1 to 91.    David was a hot emotional mess.  In fact his situation with Bathsheba and Uriah was a complete dumpster fire...but look at how David kept falling on his knees over and over again, wearing rags, wiping ash all over his body and walking around his people singing his own story of failure and torment.  

David loved God so deeply that hew knew he was accountable...that's why his repenting was epic.  David knew nobody in his camp could be a proxy for him before God.  David came clean and apologized with such sincerity that God did more than relent from destroying him...God favored him.

What was David's posture?  Complete honestly, vulnerability and humility before God.  If this speaks to you or applies to you, take heart...God loves you, sees you and He's standing beside you whenever you're ready to start.

The ironic truth here, is that if you use the words vibe or energy to explain how someone feels or what you see them doing or saying - you're actually describing your spiritual response and measure of that persons spirit.  

You're not just a human thinking about spiritual things.  

You're a spirit having a human experience.  A very temporary one at that.

We see God's work everywhere around us.

We interact with people all the time and use the word "energy" as a cheap substitute for their spirit.

Because we're spirits in a human body, our spirit is affected by the other spirits around us - much, much more than the people we see in front of us, regardless of whether you call it what it is.

But the spirits we encounter are more than people - it could be guardian angels, demons or something else from the spiritual realm - and it's all real, even if you can't see past the spiritual veil.

Perfect example is the wind.  

You can't see it but you know it's there because you can see it's effect.  You can hear and feel the wind and honestly - many of you can hear and feel things spiritually happening around you.

If you insist on calling vibes real you'll forgive us if we remind you that Spiritual Warfare is absolutely real, even if you doubt it, diminish it or call it something else.

We invite you to read the Bible again, but this time watch Dr. Michael Heiser's videos first.  

Second, understand how impactful the Dead Sea Scrolls were to biblical study.  They weren't discovered until the late 40's and it took over 60 years to scan them without damaging the contents.

Many of us grew up in church.  Some Pentecostal, some Catholic and various others...thankfully we all reached the same conclusion: follow Jesus.

But most of us still had unanswered questions.  We couldn't reconcile everything we read and sermons we heard against our understanding of other religions, mythology, life on other planets, science, etc.

Genesis 6 sets off a journey into other second temple Jewish literature like the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Jasher.  All of these were common around the time of Jesus and the Bible writers knew how the backstory came together.  God, in His wisdom, used men from that era to give us the books we have today.

This is where many of us make a very serious mistake - The Bible wasn't meant to teach us about everything.  It's not a science book, it's not a mental wellness book, it's not a questions and answers book and it's not a farmers almanac.  The Bible tells us about our relationship to our creator and how He had to send His only begotten son to reconcile the sin problem - the problem created by the fallen one...the devil.

The Watcher's, the Divine Council, sons of men, Rephaim, Nephilim, giants, supernatural humans, these were all  explained as myths or Christian folklore for as long as we can remember.  Sunday school told us Goliath was a giant and had giant brothers but they didn't tell us that they survived because Joshua and Caleb were supposed to utterly destroy certain tribes and its inhabitants...and they didn't succeed.

Modern day teachers didn't have the dead sea scrolls to confirm the backstory, and the scrolls weren't fully studied or available until after 2010.  

That meant many stories from the Bible were taught as mythology or metaphor instead of literal, actual events.  

Biblical prophecy makes a very strong statement - in the last days, it will be like the days of Noah.  Giants, seemingly supernatural beings and hybrids will walk the earth with man.  What happened in Noah's days?  God saw every defiled family lineage as evil and hated it.  What are we doing today?  We're altering our DNA, we're idolizing false images wanting to become them, we're augmenting our bodies with implants, we're pushing scientific research that defiles God's creation and the government is advancing ways to genetically enhance soldiers.  

The question isn't whether or not we'll push things too far...we already have.  It's that our scientists and leaders are only focused on what we can accomplish - never asking if we should - or if God is ok with it.  

The answer is no.  God's pissed...how many times does the Bible teach us about a jealous, wrathful and vengeful God?  Jesus is coming at a moment none of us will expect, and He will make foolish the wisdom of the 'wise'.  

If you feel you need answers before proceeding in your faith - watch Heiser, search for more videos and podcasts with him and read his books along with the book of Enoch, Jasher and Jubilees.  You'll realize there's much more to the bible than you were taught, or thought. 

If you still feel like you need answers or mysteries solved before you can love Jesus as Lord, then you've missed the biggest point of all.  God's not trying to win a popularity contest, and He's already done enough by having His son die on the cross for our sins.  If God does nothing more for us, He's already done enough.  Let that sink in and ask yourself - if you were God, would you give people answers before they showed you love, honor and respect?   Probably not.

If this applies to you - repent for your pride, ask Jesus to forgive you and start talking things out with the only sources of truth worth seeking - The Bible, and the Holy Spirit.  

God Bless and Godspeed.