"Breaking the
Bondage of a Passive Spirit"
by Francis Frangipane
Web: http://www.frangipane.org/
Email: comments@frangipane.org
As Christians, I want to again discuss our need to exercise
spiritual authority. The fact is, if we do not use the authority of Christ
daily in our lives, no matter how hard we try, we will always be harassed by
the demonic realm. And while prayer and repentance are irreplaceable stages of
deliverance, they may simply not be enough if what is complicating your freedom
is an unclean spirit. In truth, you may actually need to face your enemy and,
in the context of your repentance, command that spirit to depart from you.
Indeed, we have accepted the idea that God wants us to tolerate oppression
instead of conquer it. Fear, self-pity, anger, immoral thoughts or fleshly
lusts will not go away by themselves. Your mind must be renewed through
repentance and the knowledge of God's word, and if there is demonic activity
exploiting your sin nature, that enemy must be confronted in the authority of
Jesus' name.
You say, "I don't have a problem with an evil spirit; my battle is with
sin." I agree, your frequent failure in a particular area might genuinely
be rooted in the carnal attitudes of your old nature. However, if you have
repeatedly repented and still cannot find lasting freedom, perhaps the issue is
a combination of your sin and the devil's manipulation of that sin. You see,
the real power behind your iniquity is often demonic in nature.
The Time of Re-Entry
Even if you've embraced true repentance and found spiritual freedom, there is a
time when the enemy tries to re-enter your life. Recall that Jesus warned, "Now when the unclean spirit goes
out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not
find it. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came' " (Matt 12:43-44a).
Jesus tells us that, even if we have had a genuine deliverance from the hand of
God, a time may still come when that "unclean spirit" seeks to return
to the "house from which" it came. The "house" it seeks to
re-enter is the darkness created by your pre-repentance thought-life, and the
way it seeks to access your soul is to masquerade as your thoughts.
Jesus further warns that, when the unclean spirit comes back and finds our
souls unguarded, it comes with "seven
other spirits more wicked than itself" (Matt 12:45). First, the enemy will infiltrate your mind,
seeking to plant a thought or seed an idea in your soul. Then, he will attempt
to water that seed with a corresponding temptation. As soon as we discern the
ungodliness of this thought, we can turn and take authority over it. However,
if we fail to use our authority, if we sit down inside and allow it to grow,
the enemy will then approach with a full scale invasion. Jesus says, "the last state of that man becomes
worse than the first"
(vs 45).
At the first stage of Satan's counterattack, we must use our authority in
Christ and capture those initial, invasive thoughts. Do not let them multiply.
Do not allow them to dwell in your soul for even a moment. Whether you are
fighting fear, lusts, anger or any other sin with its corresponding demonic
strongman, you are in a war for your soul and the primary battleground is your
mind. To win, in the midst of all you do, you must guard your heart and mind
from the enemy. To do this, we must exercise spiritual authority.
Pursue Your Enemies
God has called us to war. He, in fact, has anointed us with the power of His
Holy Spirit. Our prayers are arrows in the heart of our King's enemies. Jesus
has given us authority over all the power of the enemy (Lk 10:19). Yet, the
authority of the Lord is not just for guard duty or defensive maneuvers. The
Holy Spirit desires that, as we follow Christ, we take the battle to the enemy
as well. In that same Psalm where David sings that he can "bend a bow of
bronze," he also says, "I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I
did not turn back until they were consumed" (Ps 18:37).
Let's make this clear: David was first a worshiper of God. He didn't pursue his
enemies without first pursuing God. However, when the Lord led him into war, he
thoroughly defeated his foes.
Unfortunately, I know many Christians today do not pursue their enemies. They
would rather secure a little temporary relief than obtain an anointing in God
that equips them as a warrior. The moment they finally receive a little peace,
immediately they begin to beat their swords back into plow shears. They quit.
I will tell you a solemn truth: We either pursue our enemies or our enemies
will pursue us. We must develop Christ's attitude toward evil. He came that He
"might destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn 3:8). The Bible says,
"...hate evil, you who love the Lord" (Ps 97:10). There can be no
neutral ground.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit is looking for something in us that, like David,
pursues our enemy until he is consumed. We are discussing spiritual authority
and possessing an aggressive attitude of heart that causes us to grow into
mature Christ-likeness. Jesus could live with and forgive human failure, but He
never allowed evil spirits to influence His life. He was aggressive toward His
spiritual enemies.
Future Victories And
Present Attitudes
There is a story in the Old Testament that captures well my concern with the
effects of a passive spirit. Elisha the prophet was about to die and Joash king
of Israel came and, in an unusual show of affection, wept over the man of God.
Adding to the intrigue, the king then spoke the very words Elisha uttered to
Elijah in the last hours of Elijah's life: "My father, my father, the
chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" (2 Ki 13:14).
It is possible that the king sought some special power or gift-anointing from
the prophet before he died. Elisha, in fact, accommodates the king, yet he
tests him, ordering the king to take a bow and arrows. He then told Joash,
"Put your hand on the bow." Elisha then laid his hands on top of the
king's hands. He said, "Open the window toward the east," and Joash
opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot!" And he shot. Elisha then
proclaimed: "The Lord's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram;
for you will defeat the Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them"
(2 Ki 13:15-17).
God was going to honor the efforts of Joash. The king had recognized the Lord's
anointing on His servant. He had come to receive, by impartation, the prophet's
blessing as it pertained to the need in his life. Elisha actually "laid
his hands on the king's hands" (vs 16). Yet, one more test was required.
Elisha said, "Take the arrows," and he took them. And he said to the
king of Israel, "Strike the ground," and he struck it three times and
stopped. So the man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have
stuck five or six times, then you would have struck Aram until you would have
destroyed it. But now you shall strike Aram only three times" (2 Ki
13:18-19).
Elisha was angered by the passive spirit in King Joash. The prophet knew Joash
did not possess the perseverance to pursue his enemies until he fully conquered
them. Joash could possibly have been a great king. Yet Elisha's anger burned at
the king's passive approach to God's promises - ultimately, many Israelites
would die in the future raids of the Arameans because Joash would only defeat
them three times.
Elisha's Anger
Elisha's anger actually mirrors the Lord's displeasure toward the laziness of
His people today.
You may argue, "God is love. Jesus would never be angry."
I beg to differ. Consider the Lord's word to the church in Laodicea, a church
that was overly concerned with its own comfort and passive in its attitude
toward spiritual realities. Jesus said, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I
would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot
nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Rev 3:15-16).
Jesus would rather we were hot or cold than lukewarm. Does He still love those
He rebukes? Of course, but He calls us to change our attitudes. It's not that
passivity or laziness are such terrible sins, like murder or adultery. It is
simply that such attitudes create a psychological prison around a believer that
actually holds us hostage to our other sins.
Immobilized by Passivity
In our world, the spiritual passivity and indifference of God's people is one
of the most difficult things for the Lord to accept. Indeed, we are daily
threatened by the potential of serious terrorist attacks or the advance of
perversion in our cultures, yet so many Christians remain prayerless and
inactive. This is in spite of the Lord's promise that if we will come before
Him, humbling ourselves in earnest prayer, He will empower us to pursue our
enemies and defeat them. But instead of seeking God's face on behalf of the
lost, too many of us are immobilized by the grip of a passive spirit.
The Lord is not pleased with our spiritual laziness. Elisha could see that King
Joash was a quitter just by the unaggressive way he struck the arrows. I'm not
talking about the level of our energy, but the level of fire in our obedience.
Today many nations are at a crossroads: Demonic initiatives have been
successfully advanced that not only decriminalize sodomy, but seek to
legitimize the union of homosexuals as another form of marriage. In many states
and nations, homosexuals are already allowed to adopt and raise innocent
children, and we are too passive to rise against this outrage!
Jesus gave us His authority to "make disciples of all the nations"
(Matt 28:19). Our authority is not limited to our prayers against evil; God
will help our efforts against wickedness as well. In America we have been asked
not only to pray for our nation, but to take action. That action might be as
simple (and important) as writing our senators and congressmen (www.afa.net) telling them that we
are against gay marriages. Or our actions might be to reach out to someone
confused and deceived about their sexuality and seek to bring them healing. But
if we pray and do nothing more, we might actually lose the soul of our nation,
and I am not only discussing the USA, but many other nations as well. Our
defeat might come, not because God's help wasn't available, but because we saw
the advance of evil and did nothing.
Beloved, God has given us authority, He has given us the weapons of our warfare
to help us, but we need to get up and fight. We need to repent of a passive
spirit and stand with Christ's authority in this day of war and battle.
For maximum benefit, pray this prayer out loud: Lord God, I thank You
that You have given me authority over all the power of the enemy. Forgive me
for allowing my voice to remain silent and my will immobilized by a passive
spirit. I realize to be an overcomer I must pursue my enemy until he is
consumed. You have given me authority over the plans and works of evil. You
have created me to be a minister of Your righteousness. You have filled me with
Your Holy Spirit and with fire. This day I confront, renounce, and take
authority over, the power of the enemy. I break the bondage of a passive
spirit, in Jesus' name.
by Francis Frangipane
Web: http://www.frangipane.org/
Email: comments@frangipane.org