The devil’s Playground

By Kyle Blackwell

 Today’s topic is about the spirit world and the church. You see, humans are very unique in the way God made them as opposed to any other creature. We are triune beings: meaning that we have a spirit and soul that is laced together in a body. Our soul is the battleground for the spirit world. If our spirit is not housed by the Holy Spirit, it is housed by another, more dark spirit. You see, the uniqueness of humans comes from the body. Demons cannot walk on Earth alone. They need a body to house. 

Jesus said “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” Matthew 12: 43-45 

A coworker and I were in the break room, watching the news while making coffee. By the way, if you want to see the devil at work just watch the news. There was a story about a rapper who created a shoe made with blood and a pentagram on the laces. I told that man that there are people out there who play around with the devil and entangle themselves with the spirit world unbeknownst to them. What they fail to realize is that satan does not care about their ignorance. When he left the break room he said there are people like that in the church too. He is not a Christian and he said that as a blow to me. Well, you could imagine his surprise when I told him that the church is actually the devil's playground. 

The thing about demons in the church is that they try to be very nice and friendly to others. Quite the contrary to how Western Christians and Hollywood portray demons. The devil's greatest trick is convincing people that he does not exist. There is an encounter in the book of Mark where Jesus is preaching and he casts out a demon in the synagogue.

“They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.” Mark‬ ‭1:21-26‬

While Jesus was preaching, the Bible says there was a man with an impure spirit. We’re not talking about the Holy Spirit, but a single demon. The spirit then goes on to say: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Do you catch what is going on here? This is over 2,000 years ago but this very same thing is happening in churches nowadays. I’m saying this because I’ve personally seen this in my childhood church. The demon shows that he has a personality. A personality that is trying to befriend the ones around him. Sorry, not trying to befriend; he has already befriended them. Remember, this is a single demon but he asks, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” If only I would have actually read the Bible back then. 

There was a very Godly family who was kicked out of the church. In order to do so, there were members who had not been to church in over a year that were present on the day of voting. They were saying lies about this family and the elders and deacons just allowed it to happen. I always said that if this family ever leaves this church then it would no longer survive. This church was riddled with demons before though.  When I studied this passage in Mark I went back to that day at Rolling Hills Baptist Church, which is no longer in existence (hence why I mentioned the name),  and that was one of the first times that I realized that this book that we call the Bible truly is the Living Word. It is not outdated. It is just as real today as it was thousands of years ago.

So, how are demons invited into our churches? These demons can show up in churches through pride, sexual immorality, church yoga (yes, it is real), false doctorine, or even a doctorine that believes saying a prayer is a ticket to Heaven without any continuing evidence of repentance. 

We don’t really talk about demons and the way the devil dances around in our churches these days. Why not? If we want to truly study the life of Jesus Christ we must talk about demons and the devil and his antics and personality. Afterall, Jesus has not only met the devil personally, but he also spoke about the devil, his minions and hell more than all the other writers, apostles and prophets…..combined. The problem is that the church loves to preach a sissified christ who is not Christ at all. They preach a christ who is all about love and peace and how we can do whatever we want and still go to heaven as if it were Willie Wonka and the golden ticket. They will say that a person who once said a prayer, and is now living in sin, is just out of fellowship with Christ. There is no emphasis in true repentance. You know what that is? That is a demon indoctrinating us with a false gospel. That is the same demon Jesus casted out in the synagogue. 

We must get back to what being a Christian truly is. We are a new creation. We are to be Christ-like. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them Ephesians 2:10. And those works are made possible through the Blood Of Jesus. I know that most Baptists have a hard time with that word, works. A lot of “christians” love to dance around Bible verses without actually understanding them in context. The truth is that we are to be set apart. That is why the Levitical Laws were so highly exalted. From the beginning, His people were to be set apart from the rest of the world. We are God’s workmanship. The works we do are for God’s glory and through His power. These are not works to get salvation, or even keep salvation, yet they are works that God had planned for us to do from the beginning, for His Kingdom. Any good work that we do is not the root of our Salvation, but the fruit of our Salvation. And we do these works because God took away our heart of stone and gave us a heart of flesh. We do these works when nobody is looking and not for our own glory. For God did not call us to be cupcake, jelly belly, bench warming Christians. We are the head and not the tail, above only and not below. Any good thing comes from above. Therefore any good work that a true Christian does only comes from above. 

The important thing to realize is that the devil will utilize his minions to incorporate seemingly small, unimportant issues into the church which slowly snowball into deeper, more sinister problems. We must get back to the true Gospel!

 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge -Hosea 4:6