A Chinese spy balloon and what has been described as an “unknown object” were shot down by U.S. fighter jets this week. The unknown object had the ability to hover, unlike the behavior of a balloon. As I read these reports, I sensed something else was taking place beyond the testing of the border security of our nation. While both incidents have importance in the natural affairs of nations, something else is happening within the spiritual realm. 

The borders of our individual faith and the integrity of the Church are being tested by a scenario that plays out “when people try to trick us with lies so clever, they sound like the truth” (Ephesians 4:14). Without a border on our faith, lies will enter and have unchallenged access to our lives.  

These borders are defined by what we worship. Jeremiah the prophet warned Israel to not learn the ways of the surrounding nations giving a place in their lives to their false gods. Jeremiah wrote, “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them” (Jeremiah 10:2).

Peter warned us of false prophets and false teachers who would cross the borders of our fellowship and “secretly introduce destructive heresies” (II Peter 2:1). Peter went on to describe those who compromise the borders of truth, “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them” (II Peter 2:19). When we worship a falsehood allowing it a place in our thinking, it becomes our master. When we worship the Living God and honor His truth, our worship brings freedom only attainable when the borders of our faith have been secured, protected, and patrolled with diligence. We have been deployed to confront and engage any attempt to enter the airspace of our faith and violate the historic truth of God’s word.

In the natural, no nation will survive with porous and unprotected borders. Similarly, no faith will survive if its borders are allowed to be crossed without a challenge. A laissez-faire attitude has crept into the thinking of some believers who see any established border of truth as unloving and not gracious. Believing those lies will open the Church up to a compromised message and allow the enemy to cross our borders to release spiritual death and destruction.  Engagement with intrusive falsehoods will be required if this generation of the Church is to survive the attacks being planned and perpetrated on the truth of God’s word and what it means to be the Church.