How Evergreen Deals with Demons – Part 4

In previous posts we started looking at the principles for spiritual warfare found in Ephesians 6. Those principles for spiritual warfare are:

1. Be strong in the Lord.
2. Recognize the enemy.
3. Stand for God—and, keep on standing.
4. The belt of truth.
5. The breastplate of righteousness.
6. Our feet fitted with readiness.
7. The shield of faith.
8. The helmet of salvation.
9. The sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.
10. Under-girded with prayer.

Today we will look at how Evergreen Presbyterian Church deals with instances of demonic oppression.

First, we get the elders involved. The elders will be informed of the situation and asked to begin to pray that Jesus Christ would be glorified through this situation. The elders would then be praying that Christ would be binding the demonic forces involved in the situation.

Second, we would ask the elders to pray about being on a team that would go to the person’s house to confront the demonic forces. It is important that only those elders go that feel called by Christ to be a part of the team.

Third, we would inform our prayer team to begin praying for the situation.

Fourth, we would invite the elders and the prayer team to be fasting and praying for a day or two before the elders would be going to visit the person.

Fifth, on the day of the encounter the elders and the prayer team would gather at the church. There would be a time of extensive prayer. We pray through the Ephesians 6 passage and put on the armor of God. We also look at and pray through other relevant scripture passages that speak to Christ’s disciples dealing with demonic powers.

Sixth, the elders would then travel together in one vehicle (if at all possible) to the person’s house while the prayer team stays at the church praying for the team and the entire situation.

Seventh, pray before getting out of the van!

Eighth, go and minister to the person involved. If demons need to be cast out, then that is what we do. Remember, everything we do has to be done in the power of God through the Holy Spirit—human effort will fail.

Ninth, make sure that the person knows Jesus as Lord and Savior and has experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Arrange follow up contacts with the person involved. Close with prayers of thanksgiving.

Tenth, return to the church and have prayers of thanksgiving with the prayer team. Praise God!

This is our “normal” way of dealing with demonic powers. We have not had to deal with that type of situation for a few years. There was a period of time where we had to deal with several demonic situations. I hope that we never have to deal with that type of situation again but we will always be ready to go into that type of spiritual battle.

Check back tomorrow for some insight based on things that we have learned.

Presbytery of Olympia – Complaint Filed with Synod of Alaska-Northwest!

On November 1, 2006, a complaint was filed with the Synod of Alaska-Northwest’s Permanent Judicial Commission against the Presbytery of Olympia’s Resolution of September 21, 2006. The motion approved by the Presbytery on September 21, 2006, was:

“We hereby declare that in our discernment of the movement of the Holy Spirit, every mandate of the Book of Order (2005-2007) is an essential of reformed polity. Therefore, any violation of a mandate of the Book of Order (2005-2007) constitutes a failure to adhere to the essentials of reformed polity and thus presents a bar to ordination and installation.”

The complainants request that the Synod Permanent Judicial Commission:

• Stay implementation of Olympia Presbytery’s Resolution of September 21, 2006 pending completion of this litigation. A separate Request for Stay of Enforcement, and proposed Stay of Enforcement, accompany this Complaint.
• Order Olympia Presbytery to rescind its Resolution of September 21, 2006, and to make its assessments of fitness for ordained service in compliance with Book of Order G-6.0108, as authoritatively interpreted by the 217^th General Assembly;
• Instruct Olympia Presbytery, as urged by the 217^th General Assembly, to undertake structured processes of community building and collective discernment regarding its privileges and obligations as part of the Christian community known as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.);
• Order the Stated Clerk of Olympia Presbytery to report this Commission’s Decision and Order to the Presbytery at its first meeting after receipt, to enter the full Decision and Order upon its minutes, and to send an excerpt of those minutes showing entry of the Decision and Order to the Stated Clerk of the Synod of Alaska-Northwest; and
• Order such further action to ensure full and effective compliance with the Constitution, in matters at issue in this Complaint, as this commission deems appropriate.

(Requests quoted from page 4 of the complaint)

How Evergreen Deals with Demons – Part 3

In previous posts we started looking at the principles for spiritual warfare found in Ephesians 6. Those principles for spiritual warfare are:

1. Be strong in the Lord.
2. Recognize the enemy.
3. Stand for God—and, keep on standing.
4. The belt of truth.
5. The breastplate of righteousness.
6. Our feet fitted with readiness.
7. The shield of faith.
8. The helmet of salvation.
9. The sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.
10. Under-girded with prayer.

In posts 1 & 2 we looked at the first six principles. Today, we will examine the final four principles.

The shield of faith: Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Jesus told his disciples that they could not drive out a demon due to their little faith. (Matthew 17:14-22) Too often we confuse intellectual ascent with faith. It is one thing to believe that Christ can use the Holy Spirit that dwells within us to drive out demons and it is another thing to BELIEVE that Christ can use the Holy Spirit that dwells within us to drive out demons. The first “believe” is to have it in our minds. The second “BELIEVE” is to truly believe it in our mind, heart and spirit and to be willing to go into battle based on that belief. Years ago I help lead our presbytery’s Mid-High Camp. Part of my duties was to help run the high ropes course. Heights and I do not get along too well. In my brain I knew that those cables were strong enough to hold a car off the ground. In my brain I knew that there was no way for me to fall if we followed all of our procedures. Each day I had to transfer those intellectual beliefs into action. It was my job to help the campers transfer from “the vines” to the “zip line.” Fifty feet above ground level! Spiritual warfare demands that we move from an intellectual faith to an all consuming faith in the call and power of Jesus Christ in our lives. We must know that Christ can, and will, act through us! This faith will protect us in the midst of spiritual battles.

The helmet of salvation: 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” There are far too many Christians (especially Presbyterians) who do not know that they will be in heaven. I have talked to many people who “hope” that they will be in heaven. Others I have talked to “think” they will be in heaven. We must know that we will be in heaven following our last breath of air on this earth. The Apostle Paul tells us that to live is Christ and to die is gain. The first disciples firmly believed this—all but one were killed for their faith. They were will to pay the ultimate price for following Christ Jesus. A Christian must know that they have experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ—and eternal life—before heading into spiritual battle. It gives us a silent confidence that nothing on this earth can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The sword of the Spirit—the Word of God: Presbyterians (in general) are biblically illiterate! Going into spiritual battle without knowing the Word of God is like going to battle without any ammunition for your rifle. My wife grew up in the Church of the Nazarene. Their district had Bible quizzing competitions. The young people studied God’s Word to be ready for these competitions. My wife knows more scripture than most Presbyterians! Another example comes from my seminary days. To be ordained in the PCUSA I had to pass the Bible content exam. The test was only given once a year. There I was, sitting in Fuller Seminary’s largest lecture hall will about 100 Presbyterians taking this dreaded exam. Fifteen minutes into the exam one guy got up to hand in his exam. A concerned friend asked him if he was giving up so soon. He smile, and his response went something like this, “It pays to be raised a fundy!” He had already finished the exam because he had grown up reading and studying God’s Word! We must know God’s Word when we go into spiritual battles. We must take God’s Word with us into spiritual battles. It is our only weapon!

Under-girded with prayer: Prayer must under-gird everything we do in spiritual warfare. I firmly believe that the battle is won or lost through prayer. Failure to pray=lost spiritual battles!

Check back tomorrow as I describe how Evergreen puts all of these things together for spiritual warfare.

How Evergreen Deals with Demons – Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at the principles for spiritual warfare found in Ephesians 6. Those principles for spiritual warfare are:

1. Be strong in the Lord.
2. Recognize the enemy.
3. Stand for God—and, keep on standing.
4. The belt of truth.
5. The breastplate of righteousness.
6. Our feet fitted with readiness.
7. The shield of faith.
8. The helmet of salvation.
9. The sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.
10. Under-girded with prayer.

In my last post we looked at the first three of those principles: be strong in the Lord, recognize the enemy and stand for God—and keep on standing.

The belt of truth: The importance of truth cannot be understated. Jesus said, “"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) One of the most powerful weapons of Satan is untruth—lies. Satan is the deceiver. We need to have truth in our hearts and in our minds. Notice the order—the heart comes before the mind. We must have the saving grace of Christ in our hearts. The author and perfector of truth must dwell within us. We then need to fill our minds with his truths, lest we be led astray. IMHO the Presbyterian Church does a poor job in dealing with truth. A Presbyterian pastor once told me that the Presbyterian Church has an “ethos of ambiguity.” (He meant it as a complement to the PCUSA.) Satan loves it when we allow truth to become as clear as mud. In dealing with demonic forces it is crucial that the truth of the gospel is in our hearts and minds.

The breastplate of righteousness: Righteousness is a concept that gets down played or forgotten in today’s church. Our righteousness is found in Christ Jesus. We are made clean by the sacrifice of Jesus. We need to confess our sins to him so that our sins can be forgiven. This is the first step in putting on the breastplate of righteousness. Christians have long struggled with sin and grace. In Romans Paul tells us that we should not keep on sinning in order that grace would abound. (Romans 6:1-3) 1 Corinthians 15 tells us to come back to our senses and stop sinning. (1 Corinthians 15:34) In dealing with demonic forces we must wear righteousness. The first step is to wear the righteousness that comes through the forgiveness of sins. The second step is to live changed lives because to the forgiveness we have received. IMHO the PCUSA struggles on the righteousness issue. Too many denominational gatherings end up at a bar or pub. We refuse to take difficult stands on the issue of righteousness. The PUP report FAILED in it’s dealing with the issue of purity. Why? We do not want to tell people that the things they are doing are wrong. This is one of the reasons that many Presbyterian churches are ill prepared to deal with demonic forces.

Our feet fitted with readiness: I confess that this portion of the armor of God is the most difficult for me to understand. This portion of the armor of God actually says, “with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” The “gospel of peace” does not mean that we are to ignore spiritual battles. A person who is experiencing demons will only find peace when those demonic forces are removed. We must want that person to experience peace. We have to be will to go into spiritual battle in order that peace can be experienced. We have to be ready at a moments notice to go into spiritual battle so that Christ’s peace can come into a person’s life.

Check back tomorrow for the continuation of this topic.