During the 1970’s one of my favorite comedians was Flip Wilson. What he was able to do on his weekly show was keep the audience laughing from the first to last minutes with an honest to goodness “joy of life.” One of his favorite phrases during many of his skit roles for excusing bad behavior or mistakes that always seemed to generate a laugh was “the devil made me do it!” The American Society, at this juncture did not seem to have a problem accepting the spiritual world as reality. Today many Americans do.  Despite a stronger spiritual awareness, what was unique about the 70’s was that there was less understanding of how involved the spirits are in virtually every moment of our lives. As I write to you today, I do not want to make more or less of this reality, but you MUST understand the unseen world’s influence and significance as it is critical to your survival, mental health, and self-esteem – not to mention keeping your ego in check to ensure a proper humility factor.

Let’s just consider some of the basics by starting with Angels. God created all angels for a single purpose according to Hebrews 1:14: “Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.” However, these intelligent creations, like humans, have a mind of their own and some of them, one in particular (Satan) decided he wanted to be God, despite the fact that he was a created being to serve a purpose. We see in Revelation 12:9 that: “This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”  Those “angels” were renamed in scripture as demonic spirits (Revelation 16, for example.) So now we know about these created servants of God and Satan. OK, so they exist, so what?

Well, the “so what” can be scary if you let it, but there is no need if you are grounded in Christ. So, how much influence do they actually have? Hebrews 2:5 says: “And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world. . .” (the new heavens and earth.)  The implication is that the “angels” ARE controlling THIS WORLD. This is why, no matter what mankind does to promote peace and harmony, it will never exist because “angels” are in control. That is why the Spirit of God lives in you, giving you the ability to choose and discern (1 Corinthians 2:14.) Without His Spirit the demonic angels/spirits have unrestrained manipulative abilities. That’s right we are manipulated by spirits who have been around since creation manipulate the families they are assigned to. Psalm 46:10 tells us to be still and listen.

Be careful now, because your natural instinct will say “I make my own decisions.” And, you are right. But, where did the thought/idea come from? Exactly, the spirit world. Your freedom to be still and choose will grant you power you did not even know you had – God’s today and tomorrow. Listen to what Paul says: “Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life?” We have the freedom of choice, by listening to the Spirit of God and exerting our choice. Here is what’s cool: we have the privilege of judging those “spirits” who tried to manipulate us. (God’s sense of humor and payback.) Unfortunately, they do manipulate us at times and those without the Spirit of God, well, a lot of the time.

Lord, help us hear your still small voice above the demon’s screaming and yelling.

Love Dad