There's Water in the Frying Pan

[HKHaugan]

There's Water in the Frying Pan, Identifying Spiritual Forces

If there is one thing for sure taking place in Western civilization, it is the upheaval in our social environment. Because it is social it is invisible and the forces that work in the invisible environment are more powerful than any physical force. They are the spiritual forces that battle God for the personal heart, the mind and the spirit. When hearts are changed, the way a society runs is changed. These forces are the principalities and powers of the devil's kingdom (Eph.6:12). The subtlety in these forces is that they have individuals influenced by them thinking they run their own lives, that they are in control of what they believe, feel and act. In not a few cases, they can get you to think you are serving God even if you kill someone to show it (John 16:2). In other words they exploit individuals to believe that they are really good because their intentions are good and that mistakes are simply paths to growing up as individuals. It's basic training for self-deceit. The element in the human heart that falls for this is called sin. You can see it so clearly when you read Isaiah's observation when people call evil good and good evil (Is.5:20) and when you read about the deterioration of leadership in the self centered attitudes of the Old Testament kings and of the fallen human heart in general (Rom.3:10).

When these attitudes motivate a human leader it is not the leader who is the problem but the spirit of the anti-Christ working through him assembling the spirits of division, pride, fear, power lust, conspiracy and deceit, to erect another Tower of Babel. This human leader jumps from one issue to another as he measures the temperature rise in the different groups he publicly points to. It is a kind of political 'hopscotch', a social 'leapfrogging', that as soon as one issue is raised to the boiling point he quickly shifts to another to keep the pot stirred.

Put it this way, you take a glass of even temperatured water which is a unity of steady molecules working in concert with one another. Suddenly you pour it into a hot frying pan and it immediately breaks up into hot sizzling individual drops and eventually, in time, boils completely away. That is what is happening in this world and in our country right now. We are suffering from a leadership that has followed the historical pattern of boiling issue-drops that divide and exploit minorities to create a coalition of tyranny over the majority. Again historically, this has always led to downfall and the downfall is the dissolution of morality and the eventual decline of the society in which it is allowed to happen. As strong as our nation is now, if there is no change in the decline and institutionalization of its immorality, it will simply wither and evaporate. And this will not be from without but within. Read the histories of past civilizations especially Rome.

Throughout history it is not a leader raised in the tradition of a nation that surfaces. Rather it is someone who seems to come out of nowhere and speaks eloquently with a mesmerizing spirit. When this leader arises his methodology is rather simple. Karl Marx and Lenin are examples in recent history. They had a central political strategy. Get people heated up over an issue then shift to another hot button issue that aims at another group of people. Sow the seeds of distrust, blame and self pity. Do this until you have division all over the land you are targeting. Take sides on an issue then move immediately to another. Inflate bureaucracy. Develop new committees and agencies to handle newly defined problems. Use the judicial and enforcement agencies to strike fear in the general population. Make the majority the enemy and the minority the ruler and you win. Also spend time outside your land and show deference to them with promises of compromise of all former positions. Do nothing to show your real colors, just get everyone mad at each other and you win the battle, satan's battle, this is how the minority rules. It's the tyranny of the minority. We saw it in Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Idi Amin's Uganda and Putin's new Russia, it can happen anywhere at anytime.

What we as disciples of Jesus need to consider is why this is happening now. What does Scripture tell us? “No one from the east or the west or the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, He exalts another (Ps.75:6-7).” Paul picks up on this in his letter to the Roman believers (Rom.13:1-7). Here he is explaining the source of all authority as God and our need to obey authority. The question for us in this passage, “What do we do when those in secular authority, the individual people who are raised up within an authority system to make policy, go against God's right, God's will and God's directions?” There is no question that all authority, the concept, structure and nature of authority, are derived from God and that authority, that is God as the source of authority, must be obeyed.

However, when it comes to the abuse of God's authority by those using His authority, like those mentioned above, we have a problem as believers. Heed this passage from Exodus just after Joseph had died and a new king comes into authority, “Then a new king who did not know about Joseph came to power in Egypt. “Look” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country (Ex.1:8-10).”

Note the evil strategy here. Its particulars stand out:

First, identify a people group as a problem. Make assumptions about them, get people to fear them and accuse them of disloyalty. The subtle identification of Christians as enemies of the king and what he defines as right is taking place.

Second, create fear in all minority groups that they are being persecuted by a former traditional leadership mindset (Christian). Give leadership positions in the king's government to members of these groups thus giving the appearance of elevation of the entire group.

Third, use government agencies to search out and force conformity to the king's concept of choice, morality and political views.

Fourth, infiltrate the educational system on all levels with the idea that all past history and tradition is evil and force the king's new morality as the norm.

Fifth, make it clear that any opposition to the king's authority will eventually face imprisonment and death.

Sixth, create fear in the leadership of all economic institutions that the king's government will determine the choice of their personnel and income distribution. In our country we see revered institutions like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, leaders in major corporations, sports, news media and so-called 'religious denominations', falling over each other to get in line with the new morality for fear of what the minority will accuse them of. Just like there was a 'Hitler Youth', our colleges are becoming a training ground for impressionable young minds to learn the art of accusation and social intimidation by being informers who look for and search out 'the enemy.'

Seventh, taxation will be increase on every level in order to mandate equality in earnings for the individual. 'The rich' are the bad people and 'the poor' are the good people. 'Hard work' is passe and just being here deserves reward. 'Entitlement' is the king's shrewd populist move.

Eighth, free enterprise and individual effort to achieve for profit and personal self-worth are anti-king efforts to dethrone his power. Control the mind, the heart and fear the spirit of individual accomplishment. They are the principles of secular power. His appointed leadership will determine where and how wealth is accumulated and distributed.

There are biblical examples of each. Rather than me listing them it might be well to feel the joy coming from the discipline that results when searching the Scripture. Personally arrived insight in the Spirit. That's where the treasure is.

One more very biblical warning. We are living in the last days, terrible times. “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal,not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, love of pleasure rather than overs of god---having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them (2Tim.3:2-5).” Jesus declares an even more strenuous end times in Matthew 24, too long to quote here.

While all this may seem overwhelming, not so in Jesus Christ. In Him and His word and the power of His Spirit in us, we can do what Paul says in Ephesians 6. It is up to the individual believer right where they are in spite of the world, to stand with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet ready with peace, holding the shield of faith, putting on the helmet of salvation, staying in prayer and being alert (Eph.6:14-18). Now we are talking and following the Lord's methodology locally where it is most effective. Don't let the devil, the spirit of fear, the cultural condition boil you. You are children of God whose faith conscious presence pours coals of fire on the heads of His opposition (Rom.12:20).

If you want to see the will of God at work, the hearts of mankind changed and the world turned around, it begins with each of us right where we are. It is the anonymous souls of faithful people sharing Jesus locally. This is the record of the spread of Jesus as Savior and Lord in the first century after His Resurrection (Acts 1-28). The truth then is the truth now and the truth forever.

Lord, put it into our hearts to see every next moment, event, occasion, as an opportunity to share you. Amen.