Have you ever wondered how our society arrived at this challenging and tumultuous time? Follow the trail and learn how our enemy has leveraged the human condition to suit his purposes and destroy our world.
It all began with his famous words from the Garden, Surely God would not… This is still being used today—challenging our view of God and questioning His moral code for living. Well, Adam and Eve fell and sin entered our world. Before this they had the perfect situation. God created the perfect ecosystem and relationship covering which brought about what He knew man needed—peace and security.
After their sin that all changed. They now found themselves out from underneath the covering of their heavenly Father. They are now dealing with fear and insecurity for the very first time. Though underserved, God in an amazing display of grace and compassion puts in place a way for them to recover that peace and security through what we know as the sacrificial system.
That system went on throughout the old testament history up to the time of Christ. Then, God did the most incredible thing—He sent His Son Jesus to die on a cross for us, eliminating forever the need for sacrifices by becoming the ultimate one. We now have everything we need to recover that sense of peace and security through our intimate relationship with our loving Father.
In addition to this God also knew that man needed some earthly institutions in order to help secure and maintain their sense of peace and well-being. There are three, the family, church and government. When these institutions work the way God intended we are blessed and protected—when they fail we fall back into fear. My friends, today we can see that all three of these are seriously broken.
The family was designed to produce the most important earthly institution for our growth and well-being. Today the nuclear family has been attacked and devastated. Fatherlessness is the number one cause of most of our social ills. The church, perhaps the last bastion left for security and a sense of family has all but abandoned her main reason for existence—preaching the gospel and making disciples.
The government, designed to establish moral principles and protect, is truly missing in action. The enemy has successfully infiltrated all three of these institutions and created havoc. It is, and always has been his plan. The result of all of this is exactly what we are seeing today and totally predictable—FEAR!
The breakdown of our institutions, challenges being put forth by our culture regarding the existence of God, and Marxist/Creative Theory teachings, have combined to produce at least three generations of people who are fearful, insecure and lost. The Media, Hollywood, our schools and big business have merged their messaging to create hatred among divergent groups by convincing people they are oppressed and reminding them who their oppressors are. The result…ANGER. You are seeing it everywhere.
Psychologists tell us that anger is nothing more than a mask for fear—I am convinced this is true. Because of institutional breakdowns and mass brain-washing we find ourselves with large numbers of people who are living out their fear manifesting anger, rage and unfortunately violence.
The systemic issues today are not racism or intolerance—they are ignorance (not knowing the truth) and stupidity (denying the truth). The latter is sadly the case with many today who call themselves Christian. We are failing to see the big picture and the true nature of this spiritual battle. Instead of focusing on our real enemy and battling on that front we find ourselves getting angry as we view the people who are acting out.
There are only three ways humans deal with anger, they internalize, vent or control. Internalized anger hurts us physiologically and emotionally and if not checked can lead to suicide, a real epidemic today. Venting is what is so prevalent right now and it is extremely dangerous. The Bible says we can be angry and not sin. It is the idea of being under control. Unfortunately this is almost impossible without God and sadly that is where many people are right now—without God.
Please here me dear ones—these are people loved by Jesus every bit as much as you and me. Maybe we need to go back and revisit what Jesus said from the midst of complete pain and agony hanging on that cross…Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Luke 23:34
He was talking about people who were doing way worse things than most of the rioters we are seeing on the news. We must remember that what we see on our streets today are people living out of their life experiences—lost people who desperately need peace and security which can only come from our Redeemer. We must pray and seek God’s perspective and learn to separate what people are doing from who they are in His eyes.
I want to close with two practical things I believe we can do as believers:
First, pray for these people with the understanding that they really do not know the truth. Pray this way, Lord you have given us the keys to the Kingdom—you say that whatever we bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever we loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. Lord I bind the spirit of unbelief, fear, anger and violence and I loose the Spirit of belief. I pray they find you Lord and that you guide them to Yourself so they would be able to sense the true peace they can only find in You. Help them become the men and women you intended them to be.
Finally, don’t flee from these people. I am not saying confront them or put yourself in harms way. Rather, ask God to show you how to engage them peacefully, in love, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to speak. Jesus would never flee—He would go right at them—isn’t that what He is calling His church to do?
Col. 4:5-6 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.