My wife and I own a big old Victorian home built in 1920. It has always been a rooming house and we are doing the same thing with the old place. We recently rented a room to a man who was, we were told, slightly retarded. After one week, I had to evict him as he was breaking all the house rules. The day he left, we weren't home to check his room or take our keys. Later, spare key in hand, I entered. Friends, I have seen some messy rooms in my life but this one took first prize. After only 5 days! When I walked into the room with my wife, parents and oldest daughter, we were shocked. Stunned. We will be praying over the room as soon as we can stand the stench. I'm not kidding. When I told a wise friend what we had experienced, he made a statement that has been rolling around in my head ever since. "It's terrorism," he told us. He's right. The enemy intends to shock us and instill fear and disgust. How can we pray for an individual when the very thought of them turns our stomachs our brings back bad memories? I have often said that, as it is in the Natural, so it is in the Spiritual. There are currently dozens of wars taking place all over the face of planet Earth and, likewise, there is a Spiritual War taking place in the heavenlies. Just as we see acts of terrorism demonstrated daily, gripping the most powerful nations on Earth with fear, the enemy's strategy is to strike us with terrorism which has fear at its root. God has not given us a SPIRIT of Fear (2 Timothy 1:5-7). TERRORISM RULES THE DAY Can you tell me what it is that justified the creation of the Homeland Security agency? Do you know what it was that justified the passage of The Patriot Act? Do you know what it is that will cause the worldwide cries for peace and safety to grow louder with time? The answer in every instance? Terrorism. Oddly enough, the power behind terrorism is spiritual. Demonic, yes, but spiritual nonetheless. This is how terrorism and religion can remain such intimate bedfellows, explaining how it is that those waging jihad against us can so easily bring Paradise into the picture and mention their god with every breath (incidentally, NOT the God of the Bible - don't fall for that one). I haven't personally witnessed the depth of faith of the great Apostle Paul until I saw the Al Qaida in action. Yes, they're deceived but they're sincere. Like the Hydra of Greek mythology, the nine-headed serpent slain by Hercules, when any one of its heads was cut off it was replaced by two more. From the start I have stated that it was erroneous to think that by capturing or killing Osama or Saddam we could put an end to terrorism for there is an army of Osama's and Saddam's in every age group down to age four who have been schooled in hatred of the American, the Christian and the Jew. It's a war that cannot be won with chariots and horses. The weapons of our warfare are NOT carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor 10:4-5). Where demonic terrorism is concerned, it is the enemy's shock and awe tactics that cause well-meaning Christians to waiver in their spiritual warfare objective. We tend to lose our sense of compassion when a woman's body is covered with piercings and tattoos and her teeth have been sharpened into fangs. Our stomachs churn the stench of a man whose body wreaks of urine, cigarettes and booze and, therefore, will not get close enough to take his hands and pray. We find it hard to be moved with pity for the drunken kid wallowing in his own vomit or the street person whose head is covered with lice who chooses to shuffle into the church one Sunday. We have trouble feeling sympathetic for the pornographic movie starlet, forgetting the many circumstances that may have led her down that road. In every case, we are so stunned by what our five senses reveal to us that ministry and prayer wind up way down on our things-to-do list. I've been there. I can vividly recall a homeless man I had taken in who, though he was doing well at one point, stunned me one Saturday when I saw a group of our church children watching and laughing at him through a window as he staggered through the parking lot. I had no choice but to call the police. He woke up in a cell the next day, Easter morning, devastated, he later admitted. It was hard to minister to him after that. I was angry, disappointed, and hated that the children had been exposed to that AND that he had put me in the position of having to call the authorities. Then there was the toothless, stinking woman who lived in the woods behind our church with her dogs. Though I would bring her soft foods, water, and spray her with insect repellent from time to time, my heroes will always be the mother and two daughters who brought her home, bathed her, curled her hair and even trimmed her toe nails. Though she returned immediately to her life as a hermit, for one afternoon, she experienced the love of Jesus through complete strangers. My oldest son, now married with two beautiful children, was once taking every illegal drug imaginable, in and out of jail and rehab, his face pierced and hair bleached, living for the next thrill and not remembering huge chunks of his teen years. He avoided me like the plague for years. It was as if he had died at age 11 and, for all those years, all I could do was pray. It worked. IS TERRORISM TERRORIZING YOU? Are you struggling to pray for, or minister to, the Goths, bikers, addicts and street people in our midst? Is your own spouse or teen-ager so disgusting that it's all you can do to even look at them with their glassy eyes, strange style of dress and graying teeth? Across the Body of Christ, demonic terrorism has Christians doing much less than is required if we are to set the captives free of that which has them bound in our nation. We MUST see these people for what they are: Victims. They're afflicted; under attack relentlessly. They're being devoured before our eyes. If we won't help them, who will? If not us, who? If not now, when? Let's see these shocking situations for what they really are; nothing less than terrorism. Isn't it amazing how one terrorist with a backpack can paralyze a city or airport? The Church, endued with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, fails to appropriate that power based upon the emotions that manifest themselves at the mere sight of some tormented individual. The same principle applies. It's fear-motivated. Fear...yet another demonic entity at work. I was reminded today that this is the anniversary of the day that Helen Keller was taught by Annie Sullivan how to pronounce the word "water." This seemingly hopelessly deaf and blind child, apparently cursed with no future at all, would one day touch multitudes as a result of the persistence of one woman. Though I would not dare compare myself with Annie, a street person with a pink Mohawk once told me that, when he visited our church, I was the only person who dared to speak with him and treat him like a human being. He lived with me for awhile. His macho Marine Corps father cried and hugged me when he saw the physical changes that had taken place in his boy. I could only hope that young man could touch as many lives as Hellen Keller has. A friend recently told me how his son introduced himself to a tattooed construction worker and, as they spoke, the man related that nobody usually dared to speak with him, put off by his appearance, no doubt. Was mother Teresa turned-off by lepers? Probably, in the natural. But by her reliance upon God's grace, she managed to love and comfort masses of afflicted people. We can call upon that same grace. It's the power to do the work of the ministry. Will they all respond to us as we minister to them? No, some have been given over to a reprobate mind. Jesus Himself was powerless to do miracles on His own stomping grounds. Nevertheless, when approached by the demoniac in the tombs, he was moved with compassion to help when others might have been scared spitless. Something in that man's personal will - deep down - wanted Jesus to help him once and for all. So, He did and the man was set free. In closing, let us purpose in our hearts NOT succumb to terrorists...either in the natural or in the spiritual realms. Resist that devil and he, too, will flee. |
