Daily Bible Reading - March 8, 2017

Today's Reading:

Matthew 12:1-21

Leviticus 14

Proverbs 26

Listen to the Bible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts and Commentary on Today's Reading:

From today's reading, I will be focusing on Proverbs 26:2. This verse was a surprising little gem which really packs a punch. Remarkably it connects the the Law of God to Spiritual Warfare! How does it do this?

God’s Law is vital to Spiritual Warfare. This is because the devil gets rights over us through our sins - Law breaking. According to Proverbs 5:22, the devil holds us in chains forged by our own sins - Lawlessness. 

Christians are largely aware that Spiritual Warfare is vitally important to finding and keeping true freedom in Christ. The devil is like a “roaring lion”, especially working to “devour” Christians, who are most threatening to him and his kingdom (1 Peter 5:8-9). Thus, choosing to walk with God automatically means that we must resist the devil (in God’s Power, of course). As it says in James 4:7:

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

The process of daily submitting to God and resisting the devil is called Spiritual Warfare. Yet while most Christians understand the importance of effective Spiritual Warfare as a necessity to genuine Christian living, most do not realize that, without the Law of God, effective Spiritual Warfare is impossible!

Countless Christians unwittingly place themselves in spiritual harm’s way by acting in ignorance to the principles of the God's Law. The Law is intended to protect us from the onslaught of the enemy. But when we are spiritually ignorant, the Bible warns us that the devil gets the advantage over us (2 Corinthians 2:11)!

Throughout our years in ministry, we have interceded for Christians who have unknowingly stepped outside of the protective guidelines of Torah, only to reap the fruits of hell as a result.

One man was unable to find peace in his home. Instead of a sanctuary, a little taste of Heaven on earth, his home had become a place of demonic torment and spiritual oppression. He explained to us that he felt better when he left his house. He asked us to come and do a prayer and anointing over his home. He hoped that God would then cleanse his home, removing this demonic darkness and spiritual pestilence. 

When we arrived at his home and began the requested prayer and anointing, we saw that he had a large Buddha sitting on a stand in his house. We inquired about it, realizing that the devil could have gained the right to infect his home just from the presence of this idol alone! It turned out that the man, although a Christian, had simply picked up the Buddha as a souvenir during his travels. It meant nothing to him, other than as a memento of the trip. But, had he been aware of the Scripture safeguards, which forbid all idolatry in the lives and homes of God’s people, he would have been spared a great deal of pain and suffering! Demons don’t get the right to infect a Christian’s home without a cause!

Proverbs 26:2 - “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.”

On another occasion, we were asked to drive to a couple’s home, located several hours from us. The wife tearfully explained that they were afraid to live in their own home. Lights and water faucets would supernaturally  turn on and off. Menacing presences would threaten the household. The couple couldn’t even sleep through the night without some form of hair-raising manifestation.

“Why is Satan doing this to us? We’re CHRISTIANS!” the woman cried.

Gently, we shared with the exhausted couple that there was likely a cursed object in their home, giving the demons the right to possess the house. We knew this because of a warning given in the the Law of God:

Deuteronomy 7:26 - “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.” 

Because the Law (which includes the first five books of the Bible: Genesis—Deuteronomy) is viewed as “done away with”, Christians no longer study it or concern themselves with its principles. As a result, this poor couple had no idea that cursed items could bring such terror to their home!

As it turned out, there was one cursed item in the couple’s home. It was a gorgeous tapestry, hanging on the living room wall. The artist had been a mystical, New Age, “white witch”. When the wall-hanging was removed and burned, the home prayed over and anointed, the spiritual manifestations stopped and the demonic shadow was fully lifted. We were all thankful to God for this powerful deliverance, but we were also saddened to realize that the precious couple could have been spared the whole ordeal had they only known and kept the principles of the Law!


The most dangerous result of “nailing the Law to the Cross” is that we think we don’t have to know or obey its principles anymore. When Christians believe this way and cast out demons, in Christ’s Name and Blood, the demons go, but quickly get the right to come right back (by our continued Lawlessness). And they are 7x worse than before!

But of all the unnecessary sorrows brought on unsuspecting Christians by nailing the Law to the Cross, perhaps the most devastating blow to effective Spiritual Warfare is the devil’s resulting “revolving door policy”. This “revolving door” to the human soul is a spiritual condition in which demons are kicked out of the soul, through Warfare Prayer, only to return, for reasons soon to be explained. As will be shown, it is only when we remain within the protection of the Scriptural principles that we can find lasting freedom in Christ.

When we disobey the principles of the Law of God, we have committed sin (1 John 3:4). And it is through sin that the devil gets the rights to afflict and enslave us in the first place! All demonic bondage, even full demonic possession, began with sin—either sins which we have committed personally, or it is bondage brought on us by the sins of our ancestors (Exodus 20:5). The connection between disobeying the principles of the Law (which is sin) and demonic bondage is plainly stated in Proverbs. To be “holden” with the “cords” of our own “sins” literally means to be unable to get free from the devil’s bondage. 

Proverbs 5:22 - “His own iniquities (sins—Law breaking) shall take (ensnare, imprison) the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.” 

When we come to Christ, repent of our past sins and are delivered from demonic bondage, we become God’s loving children and are made FREE (John 8:36) in the Name and Blood of the Lamb (1 John 1:9). But we are not now free to keep sinning—or keep disobeying the principles of God's Law. We are made free to demonstrate our love for God, by obedience to His Instructions (by His Grace).

1 John 5:2-4 - “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His Commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His Commandments: and His Commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 

After we have been cleansed in Christ, if we return to our old sinful habits and Lawlessness, we also return to the former demonic bondage and spiritual enslavement. Demons that were kicked out of the person’s soul, during their deliverance in finding Salvation, now return and re-infest the soul temple (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). Only this time, the demonic oppression or possession will be even greater than it was before!

Scripture teaches that when a demon is cast out, he will come back to check out the “house” (person) in whom he used to dwell. If he finds that he can get back into that soul-temple again, he will not come alone. Each demon, upon re-entry, brings SEVEN devils - more wicked than himself - into the soul of the formerly cleansed person! Thus, the Bible teaches that the person is now worse off than he was before he became “saved”; all because the Christian was ignorant of how vitally important the Torah is in both the Salvation-process and in keeping the freedom.

2 Peter 2:20-22(ESV) - “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our [Master] and Savior [Yahshua] Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the Way of Righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy Commandment delivered to them.”

The Proverbs 26:11 warning has happened to them:

‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire’.”

Luke 11:24-26  - “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”   

Sadly, we have observed Spiritual Warfare ministries, unaware of this principle, casting demons out of people, in the Name and Blood of Yahshua (or Jesus). They truly believe they are being used of God to help and bless. But deliverance without Torah instruction is not a blessing! It is a curse! For the devil gets a hellish revolving door policy. The demons cast out, gain the legal right to re-enter the soul temple of the cleansed person, when the principles of Torah are broken.

Think of it! How many demonically oppressed or possessed people can afford to come for help, only to end up seven times worse? This is why the Psalmist exclaimed:

Psalm 119:92 - “Unless Thy Law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.”

Many times people have called our ministry line concerned about supernatural manifestations going on in their homes. And whenever we hear this, we assure the person that these things can't happen in a home unless Satan has legal rights. Think of it. That's good news! The devil can't just harass God's people without a cause. And the cause is always the same - we have knowingly or unknowingly disregarded the principles of God's Law. In so doing, we have brought a curse upon ourselves. 

But what do you do if the curse has already come? Well, even in that case, there is still good news. The Saviour's Blood and Name and powerful enough to break any curse. In the Blood of the Lamb, we may be forgiven and cleansed for our past lawlessness. Then we can remove the curses from our homes through prayer, anointing, and removing any items which shouldn't be there. 

Finally, we would be wise to put the principles of God's Law into our minds and hearts. Since curses and legal rights are only gained over us through Lawlessness, we quickly begin to understand what David viewed the Law as so vitally important. It's principles are a blessing to all who delight in it:

Psalms 1:1-3  "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD; and in His Law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."