In some cases, our faith can assume a comfortable, non-confrontive posture. In that condition, a weaker faith will emerge that is unable to push through and confront the afflicting presence of evil. Only a faith that demonstrates the presence of Jesus Christ can overcome the presence of evil.
After John baptized Jesus and began to call His first disciples, He demonstrated His ministry through His teaching and deliverance. When He entered the town of Capernaum, Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach. “The people were amazed at His teaching because He taught with real authority – quite unlike the teachers of religious law” (Mark 1:22).
The authority Jesus demonstrated was very different from the teachers of religious law. It possessed the ability to influence people who had been sitting comfortably and unchallenged never hearing or seeing an exhibition of the Lord’s authority that would confront their complacent status.
While Jesus began to teach, His message stirred up a demon who was happy to sit through another powerless synagogue service. “Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit began shouting, ‘Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?’” (vs.24). The word “us” referred to the presence of more than one demon.
The Lord’s teaching had encroached on the demon’s territory. The word “destroy” has been translated as Jesus’ ability to abolish and put an end to the demon’s undisturbed presence. The Lord’s message uncovered the demon.
When the demon-possessed man began to manifest his secretive presence, Jesus said, “Be quiet! Come out of the man” (vs. 25). The demon screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and came out. When the deliverance happened, “Amazement gripped the people, and they began to discuss what happened, ‘What sort of new teaching is this? They asked excitedly. It has such authority! Even the evil spirits obey His orders!’” (vs.27). This “new teaching” is defined as something “unprecedented, novel, uncommon and unheard of.”
The world into which we are all walking needs to be interrupted by a demonstration of Jesus’ power in how we preach the Gospel and demonstrate its power. A soft, fuzzy-around-the-edges non-confrontive message will never penetrate the deepening levels of darkness in the Church and within our culture. Some of what we have allowed to remain unchallenged is like the demon-possessed man who had been in attendance at the weekly synagogue services and who was content to sit through yet another powerless service until Jesus arrived and interrupted the meeting.
Hi Garris, I am working on a book with Drs. Leslie Keegel and Jerry Stott on spiritual warfare. I would love to include, unedited and with proper attribution, this entire article. It would be an excellent addition to a book we especially hope will reengage a younger audience to the realities of spiritual battle.