We will either be captured by the love of God and led deeper into our understanding of Him, or we will be led away by the foolishness of human wisdom and reasoning. A living relationship with Jesus Christ captures our hearts and leads us to a safe place in these days when the insanity of demonic influences and doctrines of devils has captured the minds of many who profess to know the Lord but have become captive to works of darkness.

Paul warned the Colossian church of being captured by the wrong spirit. “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ” (Colossians 2:8). He issued a similar caution to the Ephesians when informing them of how spiritual maturity is demonstrated, “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever, they sound like the truth” (Ephesians 4:14). Clever lies are afoot in our world, and they are taking captive our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

The word “capture” has been defined as “to carry away someone’s spiritual life as a spoil of war” or “to lead someone away from Jesus and hold them captive to a lie.” 

We live amid an ongoing spiritual conflict that will not cease until the Lord returns. While the ultimate eternal victory in Jesus has been made secure, our current struggle is not. Some teachers in the Church no longer teach their people how to contend in this spiritual war. There has been acquiescence to a false peace that sounds good but is not only a fallacy in real life but an affront to the truth and historical record of Scripture.

Our faith must have traction in the place where we live, or it will become just another empty philosophy without demonstration. How we love our friends and family demonstrates what we believe. So does something like voting or speaking up when a lie is being offered.

Our recent elections in the United States demonstrated just how captured many in the Church have become under the influence of deluding spirits of deception. People look at candidates they either love or hate and cast a vote based on a personality, not a platform. It boggles a sensible mind that voting for a political platform that allows abortion up to and including birth, the mutilation of a child’s body to “reassign” a God-ordained gender, or censoring opposing opinions that might challenge the deceptions being promoted is somehow acceptable.

Those things that capture us will eventually lead us somewhere. What is taking place in this current spiritual conflict is a winnowing of the Church. That winnowing will reveal who and what has captured our hearts and minds.