… for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So what is the point of having faith in Jesus? Why would anyone want to believe in someone that they cannot see? Well, the answer it turns out has to do with something else we cannot see; the salvation of our souls.
Two days ago, in the post, “Testimony,” I shared the short version of how I came to believe in Jesus. Along the way, I had to come to believe in “all things visible and invisible” as it says in the Nicene Creed. One thing I firmly believe in is the existence of my soul. If I were no more than a stalk of celery or a blade of grass I wouldn’t care what happens to me. But I do care. I care a lot. And the fact that we care about what happens to us sets you and me apart from almost everything else in Creation.
Just like I am concerned about keeping my body healthy while it is alive, I am also concerned about keeping my spiritual being healthy. The problem is: How? How do we do that?
To answer this question I need to go off in about three directions at once, and I am not quite sure how to do this. The first direction has to do with the existence of demons. The second is about our belief in demons. The third is how demons affect us. Even with all that we still haven’t touched the question of salvation. The problem is that this is Three Minute Bible, not Three Hour Bible or more likely Three Week Bible. There is a lot to cover when talking about demons! Allow me to take a shortcut and share some random thoughts without trying to be too detailed.
Going back to what I said in my post, “Testimony,” at a certain point in my life I came to believe in spirits. Mine, yours, and others, including God. The “other” is a big category and includes other spirits God has created and refers to in the Bible. Specifically, the two main categories are angels and demons.
Without doing a deep dive into what the Bible says about these beings, let’s defer to Jesus. He acknowledges that demons exist. The Bible records several conversations between Jesus and the demons. Jesus also evicted demons from a lot of people in his day which raises the question, “Are demons still active today?” The answer, I believe, is yes.
The people of Jesus’ day lived a simpler life. The effect of demonic possession was better understood because there were fewer things to muddy the waters. Today our culture sees itself as secular, not believing in anything of a spiritual nature. (Foolishly in my opinion!) In Jesus’ day, people understood the reality of the spiritual realm but often became entangled in worshipping false gods. Demonic activity could be attributed to any number of “gods,” or to Satan himself.
When I was wandering in my own personal spiritual desert years ago, I wondered about the existence of demons. Could they be real? If they are real, where are they? Why were they so active when Jesus was around? Were they active before that? What happened after Jesus rose from the dead? Did they go away?
All of these are good questions. The short answer is that demons were around in Jesus’ day and had been since the beginning of time. Even now they continue to trouble people much as they did when Jesus was walking the earth.
Before we can desire salvation for our souls, we need to acknowledge that we have a soul. If we have a soul, if it is the essence of who we are, then we will survive this thing called death and continue to exist after the body dies. If we continue to exist, we are wise if we want to exist in a pleasant state of being rather than eternal suffering. But even before we die, in this life we should desire inner peace and joy. This is only available through the power of Jesus Christ. Every other “voice” you hear, every worry, every dark thought, is prompted by spiritual forces that oppose God and want to entrap you and bind you to Satan.
The point of having faith in Jesus is not only the salvation of your soul sometime in the future. It is the salvation of your soul right now, today, this minute. That is why Peter can write in the present tense: “… you are receiving … the salvation of your souls.”
Application: If you have not yet asked Jesus to come into your life, please do so now. Right now. This is not only about some vague future after death. This is about finding salvation this side of the grave, too.
Food for Thought: Why is it so difficult to talk about demons in this day and age? Do you think it would be helpful if we did?
While our focus needs to remain on Jesus, it is wise to understand that we have an enemy of our soul. We are at war. People act differently during times of peace than they do during times of war. We are not on a cruise ship, we are on a battleship.
We are not to go about our lives thinking about the next buffet, how warm the pool will be, whether there will be a great excursion later in the day or even about the night’s entertainment.
We are to engage a spiritual enemy who would devour us – and we must be prepared to stand against him (1 Peter 5: 8 – 9). We must train for war and be familiar with our equipment. This happens through bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship and putting on our spiritual armor (Colossians 2: 6 – 8; Ephesians 6: 13 – 18).
Being thus equipped by our heavenly Father, we engage the enemy to save others from his grip and free them from their spiritual captivity. We must remember that our battle is never against human beings – people are not the enemy (Ephesians 6: 10 – 12).
Finally, we must realize that due to Jesus’ work, our enemies of sin, death and Satan are defeated. They are not yet destroyed, but through Christ we have the upper hand and we have guaranteed victory (Colossians 2: 13 – 15; 1 John 4: 4).
Brother Rich,
Thank you for the excellent overview of the ongoing state of spiritual warfare that Christians find themselves in! Even though the battle rages, being in the light of Christ is far better than being lost in the darkness.
Rich presents a great picture with the cruise ship vs the battleship. We should live armored up, using discernment as we minister in this world.
I speak with non believers about Jesus and on occasion speak with christians about demonic beings and their responses have sadly been mixed, which is amazing to me.
Christians cannot be possessed, we are owned by God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can however be led astray if we allow our flesh to have to great an influence over us.
Demons as seen most often in our Bible, take possession of a person and enjoy driving the person deeper and deeper into a life of self destruction. It’s as if they enjoy bring pain to the host. Drive downtown to skid row Portland someday, what I see there is just a sample of the flood coming. Others have risen to positions of power like Mao, Hitler and Stalin, and millions paid the price. Listen to what many political leaders are saying today, chaos and insanity seem to be growing in power.
I watched my father, an abusive man go through this with drugs and alcohol. When I told him about Jesus he began to cry and in tears told me, “ I have worked my entire life trying to keep you out of church and here you are a blank-blank christian.” I lost track of him over time, he and my mom passed away and I was never told when. I praise God for the gift of incredible radar and my heart for the abused He gave me as I grew up.
We have nothing to fear from demons, keep putting Jesus Christ out there for those needing help. I have been rocked back on my heals by some of the situations God has taken me into so He could bring the most unlikely person to His Son.
Thank you, Ron.
I especially appreciate you sharing from your personal experience. You also rightfully point out that the influence of demons is not limited to the individual. Political and business leaders in the grip of darkness act accordingly. The are not pleasant to work or live under.
Thank you Ron. I also appreciate you sharing from personal experience. Very moving
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