Safe Salvation

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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 6:10-12

I begin with a disclaimer on this topic, for it is controversial to an extent. This, as with all the topics I am writing about, is from my understanding that God has given me. So I start with a question. Do you believe Christians are safe from the Demons once we have accepted Christ? Let’s think about this from a biblical sense for a moment. Now let’s think about our lives and the struggles that we have faced since becoming Christians. Again, I ask, “Are we safe from Demonic influence once we have accepted Christ?”

I would love to say Yes to this question, but alas, I cannot. So let us begin with the rest of the passage from the quote above. It is from the Armor of God payer found in Ephesians 6:10-20. As we look over it and the target audience. This was written for the Ephesians church, it was written for Christians as an empowerment of ourselves to help us stand against demonic influence and direct assault.

So clearly if once we were saved and baptized in the blood of Jesus Christ we were safe from their assaults we would not need such powerful words and prayer.  This is not to scare you so much as make you aware. Many Christians and non-Christians walk through life oblivious to these influences. To an extent there is a protection for those that are truly innocent and blind to things, but that only goes so far.

Through my time practicing the occult, I opened myself up to learn and know things that humans were not meant to know and see. With each of these things, I opened myself up to what was hidden in this corner or that corner by cutting away the hedge of protection that kept me safe from it. A wall is only strong and safe as long as it is intact. Each one of these journeys I knocked a whole in the wall that was keeping me safe.

Demons are smart, they are cunning, so they are always looking for ways to get through these walls, and then sometimes God feels we need to learn a lesson or be tested in a way that allows something through to influence us. For a biblical truth of that all you have to do is look at Job.  This demonic influence can go all the way to possession. It is very hard for a demon to possess a Christian follower, but it is possible.

Each of us have our vices, as our flesh is made of sin. They begin with these vices and look to see if we will give in to their influences. If we slip, then they continue to push until they get in. I believe that some of the failed relationships of Christians are a direct result of this kind of influence. The flesh is weak, so our spirit must be strong.

Again we go back to the Armor of God. Each part is something that we must do. The prayer is instruction for us. First we learn why we need it. Our true struggle is not against flesh and blood, it is against the world, this dark world. The world has embraced sin as a way of life. In fact we are warned of being of the world and told again and again that the flesh that we wear is dead and filled with sin. Baptism cleanses the soul as a bath cleanses the flesh.

It does not stop there however, our enemies are in the heavenly realm as well. This passage may seem odd to a lot of people, but I must remind that Heaven and Hell are both in the Heavenly realm. They are beyond the physical world and cannot be touched by the flesh. That is the meaning of the Heavenly Realm in this passage. It is the spiritual world, the non-physical world, that space between and in-between all things.  That’s why the whole armor is important.

The belt of truth, we must carry truth with us and allow it to be spoken from us and about us. The truth is both a talk about being honest as well as being honest about what you have been through. It helps protect us from the spirit of lies as well as protects our mind. The breastplate of Rightousness, be as righteous as you can be in all you do. It is also the piece of armor that is most visible. Walk the walk of Jesus and do what was commanded of you.

This will help us from getting in situations that we will likely succumb to our fleshy weakness. Shod your feet with the Gospel of Peace; we must know the gospel and be ready to share it as well as allow it to be a marker for ourselves. Spread the word of love and compassion. And above all else carry with you the shield of faith.

The shield of faith. This becomes our symbol of protection. This is what we must use to put out the flaming arrows that are shot over the wall we talked about earlier. We must take great care in building our faith, repairing our shields and keep that with us always. Each and every day we must tend to it for it is what keeps us safe from attacks.

Upon your head the Helm of Salvation; we must believe in our salvation and know the power held within that salvation. We are saved through the blood of Christ, we must not doubt that fact. Carry with us the sword of the spirit which is the holy word of God. Read your bible, carry those words with you.

To quote Tyrion Lannister from “A Game of Thrones” the mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.” Reading and meditating on the word of God daily keeps your Sword sharp for when the enemy gets beyond the wall and our shield is not holding up, it is through the use of the word of God that we will defeat our foes. But we cannot go into battle naked. A sword alone will not save us.

All of this would not be needed if we were fully and truly safe from the evil spirits. Through this we are prepared to go into battle. This is part of what prepares us for Spiritual Warfare, but not all of us are soldiers. But by no means am I saying to ignore these powerful instructions.  Look deeply upon these words and their true meaning.

So how do you protect yourself from evil? I’ll quote a website that I came across this morning:

(11) How do I protect myself from evil?

Regular prayer and sharing with others in prayer, and worship that upholds the overcoming of all that is evil through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Believing in the continuing presence of the risen Christ brings protection and peace. Also avoid occult practices that expose you to control by forces beyond yourself.

That sums things up pretty nicely. If you notice that last part, “Also avoid occult practices that expose you to control by forces beyond yourself.” I cannot stress that more. As you go through and learn about yourself and look for who you are in Christ, I urge you to avoid this, unless you feel a calling from God himself to learn about this.

I opened myself up to it and it drug me down as a slippery slope all the way to worshiping the enemies of God. There is something to be said for rites and rituals; you can find them in all branches of religion. They have great power, be mindful of them, you can use them to help and for harm.  May God be always with you, and share the Love the Christ spoke of.

The Grey Door

Do you have an object, person or event that you use to get you back into focus? Do you have something that you think about to get yourself back to center and help you focus? I know a lot of people that are of my faith typically have a few things: a bible, a cross, Jesus Christ and God. For me I have a very unique item to return me to focus on the journey that I have taken. There is a single grey door that I use to help me align myself with the Lord.

What is this door? Where does it go? It’s not about where it goes or what it is for. It is a symbol of where I wrestled with the Lord until I bowed to him and accepted his grace and glory. It is a door at Durham County Jail in pod 3B. I no longer remember the cell that it belongs to by number, but it was the bottom floor and the second cell on the right side.

It was this unlikely place that I found my way back to God. I promised myself that I would not forget that door, and if they ever tear it down the jail I just might buy the thing to hang it up in a garage or something just to keep it. So why is this door so important to me? For many people they see going to jail as the end of the line. Others see it as a stop on their road along their destination called life. For others still, it’s a reunion of sorts.

I was amongst the second group. It was a stop that I was expecting to see on the roadmap of my life. So with each stop on the journey of your life you have to decide what to make of it. Jail is not the end of your life, but it certainly will make life a bit harder for you. For those of you that see Jail as a place to reunite with friends and family, well you need to really make a choice about your life. There are options, which lead me to my first point.

I know most of you that are reading this know the parable of the sower from Luke 8:5-8. The sower went out and cast his seeds; some of them fell on rocky soil others fell amongst thorns and the last feel on fertile grounds. The parable talks directly to the willingness of the heart of the person. Now we all know that these three kinds of ground can be good soil to plant in, they just need a bit of work for the seeds of God’s word to bear fruit.

A jail is a very fertile ground for sowing seeds, but the soil is cluttered with briars, rocks, weeds and many other things to choke out the seed that God would plant in their hearts. It takes a lot to keep that soil good for planting. Well that is where my own soil was cleared away allowing me to accept the seed of the spirit. I have become a very different person. I look back to those days and see who I was coming into that place and the man that I was when I walked out, there is no comparison.

The power that God has to change a person that is WILLING to change is amazing. This message is to give hope. By now everyone is probably getting used to the fact that I am here to say that no matter what you have done, there is a way out. You can say what you want about what you have done, but Christ shows us that there is hope; people can change if they want to change. Not once will you hear me say that it will be easy. Change is hard, and people in general do not like to change.

You do not have to go to jail to change. Look at one of the most influential people in the New Testament, Paul. When he became Paul, he was hunting Christians to kill them. God struck him blind along the road and changed his heart forever. He also disappeared for a few years and came back a different man. So change that drastic was not quick.

Each and every day is a struggle as we go along trying to figure out how to survive in the world today. We learn through repetition and pattern. If a plus b equals c once we expect it be that way every time. Which leads me to question, do we actually know how to think and learn for ourselves?

Well for this statement I say that we only do what we can. Why is it so hard to change? Because in life people begin to expect things from us, if we have acted a certain way most of our lives, well people expect that from us. When we do something that is different, people ask if we are OK. Maybe we are not, but is that always a bad thing? No. If we always take the same roads in life, we can miss out on so much. People are the same way. If you only talk to the same people that you have talked to all your life, you will be missing out on so much from those you are not talking to.

Change is what you make of it. If you want to be changed you can be. You have to allow yourself to change and allow yourself to submit to the will of God. He will handle a lot of the rest. Trust in him and devote time to him daily. Draw yourself close to him and he will ensure that you have what you need. Not one day has gone by since I became a Christian that I have not had what I needed. Many have gone that I did not have what I want, but that is not his promise to us. The door worked for me, but it doesn’t have to be what works for you.

This door that I am talking about was a good seven foot tall and about 32 inches wide. It had one narrow window to look through. Where it lead to? Again nowhere. It’s not about where the door leads you, it is only about what it means. It means lessons learned. It means you are dead and holds you in the birthing womb until you are ready to be born again. It means that God has you where he needs you to be to work on you. This hideous and ugly door means that you have a choice to make.

The choice is this. You can either a) keep living your life the way you have and accept the fate that will come from it, or b) make a change that will reverberate through every other change that you will make from this day to every day beyond it to live different. This is so much easier to say than to actually do. Ecclesiastes 11:8 tells us to rejoice in each day that we are given and remember the dark days for we will see many of them. These days come to temper us and strengthen us.  Ecclesiastes also tells us this in which I will leave you with: “Remove sorrow from your heart, and put away pain from your flesh…” for it is all Meaningless. Live life and enjoy it. Remember to take time out of your busy schedule to actually live life. Have fun; enjoy your partner, your family and yourself.