God told the children of Israel that He had not permitted Joshua to remove all their enemies from Canaan so that He could test those who had “not known war” (there had been no enemy forces in the wilderness). The younger generation’s resolve would be tested by the nations living in the Promised Land (Judges 2:21-23 & 3:1-3).
Would they keep the Law of Moses as they had solemnly vowed? We know they did not. Instead they permitted their sons to marry the daughters of the Canaanite tribes and even to serve their gods (Judges 3:5-7).
Likewise, the present generation of Australians has not known the kind of war experienced by their great-grandparents, whose sacrifices extended from food rationing on the home front to the loss of loved ones on the battlefront. The elderly wince at the sound of grandchildren warring with one another in computer combat games because it evokes the horrors of real war, and the thought of their grandchildren experiencing the things they did is too awful to contemplate.
Nor has the present generation of Christians known the kind of spiritual warfare their grandparents experienced. Sixty-five years ago those who preached the Baptism in the Spirit as a subsequent experience to salvation and who spoke in “unknown tongues” were derided as deceived. The word “charisma” was unknown by most Christians. Pentecostals were shunned. Their meetings were said to be wild and disorderly and so were avoided by mainline Christians.
But persecution is par for the course in the restoration of spiritual gifts. In the previous century General Booth and the ‘soldiers’ of his Salvation Army were treated much worse: rotten eggs and overripe tomatoes thrown at them as they marched through England’s streets and held outdoor meetings. But,everything’s relative: the farther back in history the more savage the persecution. And the Salvation Army expelled those of their officers who received the Gift of the Holy Spirit and “spoke in tongues” — unlearned languages.
No mature person would wish for war of any sort. But after great hardship and sacrifice the conflict between the forces of freedom and dictatorship in the Second World War ended in victory; and the conflict between Christians and the world system eventually will result in the triumph of good over evil.
But how will those Christians who condone the evils of the system it ought to confront fare in the conflict foretold in bible prophecy, one which is now visible in national politics and in world affairs?
The answer is by facing up to and dealing with those areas in our lives that remain unsubmitted to the Lord Jesus and unconquered by many believers. Things we’ve learned to live with; compromises made; idols accepted and adopted. It may be the sin that so easily trips us up, the one that’s easier for us to ask God to forgive than determine not repeat predictably; or a secret sin that confessed would raise the eyebrows of those who thought better of us.
I’m sure that the stubborn enemies that challenged the children of Israel so long ago have counterparts in the ones we’ve yet to confront in our own lives. We haven’t just slept with the enemy but rather learned to live with him for so long that it’s hard to separate his identity from our own. The thought that “a personal deficiency” might really be a dormant demon that is revealed in fits of rage is thought best buried in a belief that Christians cannot possibly have one.
“There remains much more land yet to be possessed.” And some Christians who need to be set free from demonic oppression. Am I seeing “demons under every rock” as the saying goes? Of course not. But I do see what are identified as “personal demons” hidden behind what nowadays are misnamed as “psychological disorders”.