“He who is not with me is against
me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
– Luke 11:23
Back in the
mid-1980s, Christian author Frank Peretti published a novel that rattled a lot
of Christians—including me. The novel, “This
Present Darkness,” is set in the small college town of Ashton
In one
scene I don’t think I’ll ever forget, a demon hovers over someone’s head,
sticks his bony little finger through his skull, and stirs his thoughts. As a
teenager, that image just about gave me nightmares. In his book, Frank Peretti
shared vivid and imaginative ideas of what demonic activity might look like in
the invisible realm. And even though it was a fictional story, it opened a lot
of Christians’ minds to the reality of spiritual warfare.
Jesus
understood spiritual warfare better than anyone. At the very beginning of his ministry,
freshly baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus went mano-a-mano with
Satan himself. He spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert battling Satan’s
temptations, overcoming every one of them with the Word of God lifted up in
prayer. Over the next three years of his earthly ministry, Jesus encountered
demons time and time again. And in Luke
11:23, Jesus makes it clear that
it is impossible to be on the fence in spiritual warfare: “He who is not with me is against me, and he
who does not gather with me scatters.”
In verses 24-26, Jesus tells of a demon who, for whatever reason, vacates
a man’s soul. The demon wanders the desert looking for rest and doesn’t find
it. So, he decides to return to the man he left. “When [the
demon] arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order” (v. 25). In other
words, the man had cleaned up his act since the demon left him. Perhaps he got
off drugs, stopped cheating on his wife, and got himself a steady job. But his
soul was empty because he still hadn’t invited the Spirit of Jesus Christ into
his life.
In the parable, Jesus continues: “Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than
itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person
is worse than the first” (vs. 25-26). In other words, the
demon said to himself, “Easy smeezy! I’ll grab seven of my buddies, and the eight
of us will have no problem storming the gates to this man’s soul and moving
right back in.” The demons did just that, and as time passed, the man’s
condition was worse than ever. What happened? Well, let me share three lessons
that William Barclay draws from Jesus’ illustration:
#1: You can’t leave a man’s soul
EMPTY. In our pride we think we have so much willpower against Satan’s attacks.
We think we can sit on the sidelines of the great spiritual war and not take
sides. We think we can leave our souls empty. But we can’t. If we don’t freely
choose to join Jesus’ team and ask him to fill our hearts, whether we like it
or not, Satan will drag us onto his team, and he will fill our hearts. If God
is not in the driver’s seat of your life, one way or another, Satan will be in
the driver’s seat.
#2: It’s not real religion if it’s
nothing but NEGATIVES. The man in Jesus’ illustration thought that getting rid of the demon was
all it took to be in a good place. The evil was gone. So, life must be good … right?
No. It doesn’t work that way. Good isn’t simply the absence of bad. True
religion does include the negative—NOT doing certain things. But it can’t be
boiled down to a list of “Thou shalt nots.” Far too many nonChristians in our
community have been given the impression that Christianity is just an
oppressive list of “don’ts.” But Christianity is so much more. It’s not just
about expelling the evil. It’s about being filled with our good Savior and
penetrating this world with his mercy and grace and love and goodness.
#3: The
best way to avoid evil is to do good. I don’t know about you, but I find that I’m not nearly as
mean to people when I’m being nice to people. My actions tend to steer clear of
evil when I’m busy doing what is good. My thoughts don’t wander off in
depressed or bitter or lustful directions when I’m keeping myself busy doing
God’s work. In James 1:27, God’s word tells us, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure
and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
You and I
must choose a side: Either Jesus Christ’s side or Satan’s side. And the word of
the Lord is this: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” In
other words, “Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will come inside you and
fill your heart and your soul. And when he does, you will be full of God, and
there will be no room for the enemy.” So, choose Jesus. Be filled with Jesus.
Obey his word, and you will be blessed.
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