THE DREADED DARKNESS

The church from the beginning was fraught with soulical errors.

If you notice Paul the Apostle spends most of his writings trying to correct these mistakes. The “Darkness of the mind,” issue was one of the most important of these problems.

Eph 4:17-21 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles (unsaved) also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.  But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus. . .”

These scriptures point out potential flaws in the church that can be devastating.

See if you can view a canvas where the profile of a Christian is being visualized. With each brush stroke more is being revealed; futility of the mind, inability to understand spiritual things, unable to access the power of GOD. Hardness of heart, that chokes out the love toward GOD. Accepting the, “Anything goes,” attitude. Impurity, and greediness, are the soul bondage twins. These are brother and sister problems that Paul is trying to correct.

Darkness comes in another form besides the way you conduct yourself and that is; demonic spiritual oppression, where you feel you are all alone. Where the heavens are made of brass and you can’t get through to GOD. New Christians are targets for this satanic attack at a time when they have limited spiritual resources.

One such occasion happened to me just after I was saved. I lived in a cheap hotel and was doing alright. I managed to buy some church clothes and always dressed nice.

A short time after church one Sunday I came home to my room and was waiting for the evening service when there was a presence in the room. The light was on but it felt like there was a darkness completely enveloping me. It was so strong that I could hardly think. I had bought me a Bible for a couple of dollars and not knowing what else to do I began to read it. I can’t fully explain the nature of what IT was; only that it was almost overpowering. As I read God’s Word, the force lessened, and after about an hour it was gone. In over sixty years I haven’t experienced it again.

Just being saved, I wasn’t prepared for a spiritual battle of that nature, but there was something about the word of GOD being implanted in me that broke the power of that awful darkness. Because this experience was so off the wall I have kept it to myself except for a couple of people.

Jesus knew a lot more about resisting the evil one, and he went directly to the word of GOD and quoted it with out arguing with the devil.

If you have been saved for awhile, chances are you have had an experience where you were attacked in some way. Paul is explaining that we can weaken and open ourselves to the power of the Satan by slipping back through carelessness and disobedience.

This is like taking the armor of GOD off and removing GOD’S protection form us. Let’s put on the whole armor of GOD, and keep it on and use it continually
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZWLVVLTclY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrjKUII-V18&feature=related