For This Reason 11

[HKHaugan]

I’m sure everyone growing up during childhood heard this from their parents about behavior, “Remember who you are and the family you come from.” I don’t know if that counsel was paramount in my mind when I was out with other kids. But it did sink in later especially when I visited the old country, Norway, the land of my forbears. I did come from a respected old country family with strong conservative social values. Ethnic values were not that dissimilar from other groups like Irish, Italian, German, Chinese and so on which only goes to say that there is an invisible dimension that carries the struggle between good and evil. It’s as real as the physical dimension and terrain your body lives in and on.

The reason for that little ethnic vignette is the Lord’s revelation and insight to Paul about being a witness. This is not only a witness to the world of people around us but an insight that our witness is first to the powers that roam the spiritual dimension. “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph.3:10-12).”

Yes Virginia, (the classic reporter’s response in 1897 to a little girl asking if there was a Santa Claus) there are evil spirits and a host of demonic powers. The Bible really is right when it corners the devil and his angels as the corrupters of God’s Creation. And yes Virginia, there is a God the Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit living in Heaven and a hell where the devil reigns. Contrary to the line from that song ‘Taint Necessarily So’ in Porgy and Bess, “All that you’re liable to read in the Bible, ‘tis necessarily so.” So yes Virginia, we live in a bipolar world. It’s as divided internationally as it is in the individuals within it because the spiritual dimension is divided. But Virginia, we know the end of the story from Scripture. In Jesus God prevails and those of us who believe in Him prevail for eternity. “Even angels long to look into these things (1Peter 1:12).”

Our first witness is to all the powers that preside in that dimension. This is why Jesus sought only to please His Father by doing His will. All His decisions were spiritually directed. In the beginning of His ministry His first witness was to the devil and his temptations. His last witness was the Cross and the devil’s final weapon, death. ‘For this reason’, His descent into the darkness before His Resurrection. He was witnessing to the will of His Father in the entire spiritual dimension. It was God the Holy Spirit and His power that carried Him through death, the darkness, the devil’s presence and freeing those locked in the place of the departed. Then, after that spiritual trek through the spiritual dimension, He witnessed who He really was, God the Son, to His disciples.

Indeed, the angels long to understand what God has gifted His images to do in the world. We have been gifted to expose the powers of darkness by being the light of Jesus. This is what neutralizes the power of sin and evil that motivates the unbelieving hostile forces behind the world we can see. By faith we know that no matter what the world’s response to us is, our witness cancels the power of the spirit of fear and anger. We can be attacked for our faith, made fun of, persecuted, ridiculed and falsely accused. At those moments, realizing their evil source, we witness to them in the power of the Holy Spirit like Jesus who didn’t do what they wanted and that was to react with fear, anger, defensiveness or revenge. We know those are evil spirits tempting us to be like the devil. We stand on the Word and keep Jesus central in our minds.

So every next moment, our choices and decisions are being observed in the spiritual dimension. Therefore we stay in the Word, we worship Him, we gather with brothers and sisters in prayer to share what is going on in both the spiritual and world dimensions. This way we are building spiritual character to meet the demands of the spiritual dimension which we face in every next moment.

What an insight He has given us, to know where witnessing really begins, first to please God, then to pray for strength and insight to witness for Jesus to the spiritual forces around us and then to those through whom they work. Herein also lays the need for discernment which is the gift of the Holy Spirit to see the spiritual activity behind people’s behavior around us. This enables us to know how we can witness to them. If we can discern the source of their behavior we don’t tell them how to live but to see the person of Jesus and His way to live and give them the choice. This may be a short or long process but one that could mean their salvation. So, what if someone is defensiveness or angry? We pray for insight and power to witness to the spirits of anger or fear behind their behavior.

I think specifically of a psychiatrist who was confronted by a patient frantically announcing to him over and over that she was the 17th cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He broke in with this insight, “It must be terrible to not know who you are.” Immediately she calmed down and looked at him ready for help. In the movie “Captain Newman M.D.” Gregory Peck played the part of an Army psychiatrist treating traumatized soldiers. As he was making rounds with his nurse one depressed soldier made some self-pitying comment to which he responded with a stern ‘shape-up’ reply. The nurse was shocked and asked how he could be so harsh. He said, “I wasn’t speaking to him, I was speaking to his sickness.”

What this means for each of us is to really survey our spiritual reality as spiritual beings living in a physical body and environment, spiritual beings having a human experience. Being images of God who know Him through His Son and the Holy Spirit we are always in the process of character building which means every meeting with others is an opportunity to grow, to mature and to witness to the power of God in a bipolar world hostile to God remembering first that our witness is to the powers behind the scenes and then to those affected by them.