Designs of Darkness: The Spirit's Eclipse - West

Dear saints, this is the introduction to a new devotion I am writing. Its aim is to explore and reveal the different avenues of approach the powers of darkness use to usurp the Holy Spirit's influence in the life of a believer. These will be published to the "Understanding Mortification" blog: http://understandingmortification.wordpress.com/ as sort of an addendum.

I pray they are a blessing to you.

"Those who have been chosen of God to radiate the life of His Son are given a daily death sentence. This death sentence consists of eclipsing the desires of the flesh so that the Life of Christ might have preeminence through their vessels. This measure of flesh-eclipsing is direcly proportionate to the diligence one maintains in walking in the spirit. And walking in the spirit requires a deliberate daily resolve. It involves a conscientious effort in guarding our minds from evil thought-patterns and ever realigning them Heavenward.

What many believers do not realize is that this world has been designed by Satan to prevent this realignment. The basic God-ordained needs of food and intimacy, for instance, have been diabolically perverted by the constant bombardment of advertisements to the flesh. In every corner of this world, we find the sole design to satiate the flesh and lower our upward gaze from glory to the dismal, empty plane of Adamic carnality and vanity. This is the scheme of the world, the grand design of spiritual darkness. If we take too light an approach to this awareness, we will soon be derailed and devoured by the roaring lion who pulls the strings and works the levers of this ruined world.

The gaze by which we train our spirits on Him who is Altogether Lovely is subject to gravity. It takes real effort to resist the pull and maintain a daily loftiness of faith, trust and spiritual integrity toward God. The fight the old saints wrote so prolifically of, and the fearsome war in which the Christian must for a lifetime engage, is not to be found against flesh and blood, but in the maintenance of this unfettered gaze from the weighted darkness. Devils and charlatan preachers, humanistic philosophies and the quest for money are some of the many different weights used by the enemy to sink our minds down into the dregs of carnal rapport. When the mind becomes preoccupied with fleshly pursuits, the vibrancy of communion between our spirits and His becomes eclipsed. Darkness prevails then upon light; an eclipse has occured. But there can be a eclipse-reversal through the blood of Christ!

Like with Joshua, God is able to temporarily halt the eclipse by making the sun and moon stand still, and with Hezekiah’s prayer, even make the sun retrack its course and reverse the occlusion. He affords His children this miraculous restoration through faith in the blood of His Son. Darkness always recedes upon contrition and blood-washed repentance."

Scripture Meditations: Joshua 10:3; Isaiah 38:7-8, I John 5:19, Luke 9:23, II Corinthians 10:3-5, Colossians 3:5, Galatians 5:16, Philippians 1:20; I Peter 1:13, I Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:12, Hebrews 12:2

Great to hear that you are continuing your writings brother. They are a great help to us in opening up these scriptures and keeping us focused on the Light who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

The constant bombardment of advertising and media manipulation of those most precious gifts God has given us is a terrible satanic movement. How are minds can be seduced into woeful thought patterns.. So often this ends up with guilt, pain, broken families and all the rest. How wonderful we have a Saviour who can guide us through this minefield.

I believe that teaching in this area of mortification ranks among the most important of our day. It seems the enemy wants to silence it under endless fruitless debates among believers. The reason is clear, mastering the former will empower Christians with Divine strength, the latter only brings division and weakness.

Thank you for the wonderful encouragement. These teachings on mortification and spiritual warfare have been occupying my spirirt for almost a year now. I haven't been able to teach them orally yet, only through the written medium of SermonIndex.net and books. I absolutely believe they are are of paramount importance today, for the enemy is on an all-out rampage through the power of the world, sex, entertainment, sports and money. The times are ruthless.

The believer who has not yet learnt how to protect his mind and heart will be ruined, even if his theology is correct. Theological wrangling and doctrinal surmizings are totally ineffective when Satan strikes the ungirded mind. This is why so many are depressed, addicted to porn, angry, divisive over the internet, and generally defeated inwardly. But they know all the doctrtines, the born-again theology, the proof texts that conquer all skepticism, the evangelical dogmas. But their minds are corrupted with strongholds; their hearts are weighted down with cares and unseen turmoil. Deep within the inner sactuary of the heart they have no rest and the "inner man" is malnourished and overcome with dark, invading weights and chains of spiritual fatique.

You would think that ridding ourselves from these occulsions should be of primary importance, but for too many it is the exact opposite. They think pure theology will correct a dirty heart, and a correct mental assent to doctrine will suddenly purify a defiled mind. But it never works out: it only lends to an increased level of legalism and hypocricy and an aire of spiritual superiority.

Without systematic mortification, and without effectively countering the designs of darkness we actually open ourselves up to incredible bondage and spiritual ruin. In other words, the cup must first be cleansed on the inside. Only then can it be suitable for the watering of the souls of others.

Spiritual darkness often comes by way of great lights and spectacular music. The explosion of the senses is often a weight to the spirit. When the mind and heart are most lax from the presence of the Lord, the more accessible the doorway becomes for the infiltration of worldly thrill. The object of entertainment is in the usurpation of our spiritual joy. It is a cheap decoy, a fake diamond, a nugget of fool’s gold. The powers of darkness wait for the joy of the Lord to abate until presenting the sham. The swindlers dare not offer a billionaire a plastic ruby, for the funds of his unfeigned joy will instantly trump, at the moment, anything they may offer in trade. But let his funds run low, his investments sink, the devaluation of the King’s joy increase, and the principalities are standing by with their polished golden apples.

The powers of darkness are opportunistic. They bide their time in the shadows while God’s children bask in the joy of their Lord. They daily watch for signs of diminishment; they listen to their prayers and spy on their quiet time. When the occasion is ripe to offer the apple of entertainment, they do so, and, like Ehud, slip the dagger quietly into the fat. A mortal blow is inflicted, and a slow death begins. As the poison of entertainment begins its spread within the soul, the joy of the Lord is occluded with darkness. As the child of God flounders, the powers of darkness strike him a second time. Here they strike with a delusional acceptance that entertainment might be successfully married to God’s joy. Like Naaman, they find themselves floundering between temples: the shrine of a false god and the temple of the true God of Israel. Because this is taking place within their vessels, profane altars are erected atop God’s altar. The heart is commandeered; the incense of cheap enjoyment is burned at the expense of the Holy Spirit’s fire.

The power of soul entertainment and the influence it has over the flesh is electrifying, and, in the end, it is a fatal agent to the “new man” created in us by God in the image of Jesus Christ. The two cannot co-exist for long, and entertainment will always win the fight over joy for dominion in the human heart. The powers of darkness know this truth very well, which is why the world has been designed to be a lair of entertainment, a colossal web to entrap men and women for the purpose of euthanizing their minds from the realities of God and the dangers of hell.

To effectively counter the dagger of entertainment, the mind must be strongly girded and trained upon the glory of Jesus Christ above. The believer must pray for the grace of a new mindset adaptation, for a shift to take place where our gazes of faith are diverted from earth to heaven. We must learn to recognize when the shadows are drawing longer and our inner men are beginning to hunger. And upon this recognition, for us to fly to the blood of Christ where God has provided immediate light, food and shelter for our beleaguered spirits. Any hesitation to fly here puts the spirit in the jeopardy of being out-matched by the fake glitter and false gold of worldly entertainment.

Scripture Meditations: Judges 3:21-22; II Kings 5:17-19; Matthew 14:6; Luke 12:19, 21:34; Galatians 5:17, 6-7; Ephesians 3:16; II Timothy 2:4

http://understandingmortification.wordpress.com/