Video Transcript: Ambushes and Unholy Spirits

This is lesson 32 in the practical ministry skills course, we're talking about  ambushes and unholy spirits part of chapter 18 in pastoring the nuts and bolts,  our key verse is the same as last time. We are not fighting against flesh and  blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,  against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly  places. Ephesians 6:12, this is something that I learned, quite frankly, not in the  seminaries that I attended and the courses that I took. It was from more reading  and from experiencing and being around other people who had learned some of  these things. It's not something that is often taught. I think it should be taught  more. And so I want to talk about this, not so much in terms of sometimes you'll  see it taught as a particular kind of ministry, often called a deliverance ministry.  But I don't want to be talking about it in terms of how to do a deliverance  ministry. I want to be talking about how you protect your ministry, your church,  whatever ministry God has you in, how to recognize and protect your ministry  from the influences of these kinds of things. So first, let me talk with about  something that maybe should have gone with the problem people. Because this  is not so much of that kind of thing that I just mentioned, but this is more along  the lines of what people just might do, the kind of problems that you need to look out for in your ministry, and that is what I call ambushes. Now, an ambush is a  military term where you have a concealed army hiding and waiting for the other  army to come through, typically, a narrow place where they don't have a lot of  room to operate, can't get away, and when they get in there, all of a sudden The  first army jumps out from behind, wherever they're hiding and and just opens fire and just wipes out the poor unsuspecting Second Army that came in now maybe between two cliffs or something like that. Anyway, that's an ambush, and those  can happen in church, not not literal military ambushes with bullets and so on,  but people jumping out, surprise and and catching something that you don't  realize. It looks the essence of an ambush is it looks harmless until all of a  sudden you're being jumped on. One of the ambushes that you need to look out  for is if somebody comes to you and says, Oh, Pastor, I know such and such  needs to be done, I'll be happy to take that on. I'll volunteer for that. Usually,  that's a wonderful thing, but as I mentioned, I think in talking about finding  leaders, sometimes they are volunteering for a position in the church or in the  ministry that will give them power or authority to do something that they want to  do, that may be something that you don't want to do, something to take you in a  whole different direction, may maybe even really mess up your Ministry. So just  be care. Be careful. Of those, I'll be happy to take that on. Can be a wonderful  blessing, but always, I hate to want to teach you to be skeptical or cynical, and  that's not my intention, but be careful. We saw the passage from Timothy a few  lectures ago. Don't put anybody in a position of leadership too quickly. I'm  paraphrasing it. People are saying somebody will come to your oh pastor, oh  minister. You need to know people are saying such and so well, how many 

people are saying? Maybe the person who's telling you and their husband or  wife, they may be the only people in the whole church who's saying it, but the  phrase people are saying makes you think that there's this big groundswell.  There's this big movement in the church. It's a way of trying to control you, trying to get you to do what they want you to do. The whole church agrees with me.  This is an interesting one. I finally worked through the psychology of this.  Because the person who says, the whole church agrees with me, and usually  people are saying, and the whole church agrees with me are when they're  coming to tell you you're doing something wrong. Okay, and they do this to  bolster the authority. So it's not just them telling you you're doing something  wrong, but people are saying, or the whole church agrees with me, that you're  doing something wrong with what they they can honestly believe the whole  church agrees with them. They can honestly. I mean, if two people are saying,  then people are saying is true, and they they are, they're okay telling you that  the whole church agrees with me. They honestly believe that. Because most  people, when they think about the church, they just think about their friends that  they see it with. There's their friends, and then there's all those other folks. So all those other folks don't really count in their mind. They don't really know who they are, and they're just the other people that are there, but their friends there.  When they say the church, they think about their friends, and so all when they  say, the whole church agrees with me, they mean all my friends agree with me.  If somebody disagrees, usually the kind of person who's going to come to you  and say, the whole church agrees with me is the kind of person who is pretty  outspoken, and it's hard for people to speak up and say, Well no, I think you're  wrong, especially in church, Christians think they should always be nice, and  that often means they don't want to disagree with somebody. I'll just be nice. I  won't say anything. And these kinds of people typically, if nobody specifically  says I disagree with you, you're wrong. Then they're going to think, just by the  silence, or just because you made some kind of a non committal, polite answer,  they're going to think that that's agreement. So what they mean when they say  the whole church agrees with me is that, first, it's all of my friends agree with me, and second, the way I know they agree with me is because none of them stood  up in my face and said, You're wrong. Third, if somebody did have the temerity  to stand up and say, I think you're wrong, then this person would, very often, I've seen this happen, this person says, what? And I thought you were my friend,  and they are taken out of the category of friends, and therefore they're relegated over to that other group of people, all those other people that just are there. And  so then the they can say, once again, all my friends agree with me, and in their  mind the church, the only people in the church that count are all their friends,  and so they can say, the whole church agrees with me. So I go through all of  that first, because I just think it's interesting how that psychology works  sometimes. But second, to let you know that when somebody says the whole 

church agrees with me, the way they see the define the whole church is very  different from the way that you as the Minister define the whole church or the  whole ministry. And the last Ambush is, I can't tell you. I can't tell you somebody  says this, but I can't tell you who somebody says that, but I can't tell you who I  promised I wouldn't say. First off, I make it a policy to totally ignore anonymous  notes. If somebody won't sign their name, then I won't pay attention if they're not willing to tell me Face to face, then I'm not going to bother with it. It's not going  to be worthwhile most of the time. I mean, I read it, and it's possible that on rare  occasion, there may be some good reason for maintaining anonymity, but  people will hide behind confidentiality and not tell you. And that can be a very  controlling process. I was in one church where I had a woman who, repeatedly,  several times, came to me, Oh, Pastor, you need to know this. You need to  know that somebody is upset, and they are so upset with what you did that they  are thinking of leaving. And she came to me several times, apparently, about  different people each time, and I would say, Well, what did I do wrong? Well, I  can't tell you that. Well, who is it? Well, I can't tell you that. So what's the  purpose? All it did was get me upset. I know that there are probably people that  don't agree with everything that I do and say, but if I know who it is, I can go to  them and try and get it cleared up, because it may just be a misunderstanding.  Very often it's just a misunderstanding, but if I don't know who it is, if they won't  tell you, then there's not much you can do. So don't let people get away with that kind of thing. These are just ambushes, all right, but now moving on. Sometimes the ambushes are prompted by unholy spirits. Sometimes they're not, but I do  now want to move on to the area of unholy spirits. There are certain spirits that  are not of God, and you can call them demons. You can call them evil spirits.  You might prefer to think of them as mental attitudes or spiritual atmospheres or  something, but I'm going to call them unholy spirits, and there are some that  especially attack a church. One is the spirit of religion, and a lot of people are  surprised to hear religion described as a an unholy spirit. Now, the general term  of religion meaning attitude toward deity and faith and all of that is fine, but a  religious spirit is one that would substitute religious activities for a relationship  with God. A religious spirit is one that would lead people to think that because  they're coming to church and coming to Sunday school, maybe even singing in  the choir and paying their tithe, that therefore, because they're doing all these  religious things, that means they're a good Christian and they have a good  relationship with God, when it may be totally different. They may be going off  Monday through Saturday and doing terrible things. So a religious spirit, a spirit  of legalism, which is a spirit that would tend to make you want to look at the  letter of the Bible, the letter of the law, instead of the spirit of the law. And it is, it  turns you into a religious lawyer, kind of a thing, trying to hold people to and it's  usually it's not just the letter of the law, but it's your interpretation or their  interpretation of the letter of the law. And I said you're because pastors can be 

subject to any of these spirits as well. They can attack you as well as they can  attack people in your congregation. So legalism looking at trying to hold people.  It's what Jesus said the Pharisees had wrong when he said you tithe the herbs  from your garden, the little, little you count how many dill seeds you gather off of  your dill planting, your gardening, you set aside 10% of them to give to the  church, but you ignore the larger things of love and care and taking care of  people and all of that kind of thing. So legalism, suspicion. a spirit of suspicion  often masquerades as discernment of spirits. But a spirit of suspicion will give  rise to gossip. It always thinks the worst of everybody, and it can sow all kinds of problems. A spirit of division is the Devil loves to divide and conquer, and it's  amazing how that can happen in a church, the pastor is on the phone talking to  his superior, and there's a bunch of people with frowns standing in the doorway,  and the pastor is saying bad news, Bishop, our church planting team is divided  on whether to call the new congregation First United Church or United First  Church. They're not at all united. We're divided about whether we're going to be  first United or United first. And that's the kind of thing that the Devil loves to do. I  have heard of churches that split because of complaints that one of the ushers  had squeaky shoes, honest to goodness. I didn't know that personally, but I  have read of that one. The way it happens is you have to understand that that  churches ministries are more susceptible to this than most any other kind of  organization. Because, let's say the issue is, what color are we going to paint  the kitchen? Now, unless it's an extremely rare circumstance, I really don't think  God cares what color you paint the kitchen. He gave you a mind to figure these  things out. But let's say your church has a kitchen and and it's time to paint it.  And one person says, Well, I was praying about this, and I believe that God told  me that we should paint the church kitchen yellow. And another person says, oh, no, I was praying about this, and I'm sure God told me that we should paint the  church kitchen green. No, God told me yellow. God told me green. Well, if you  think God is telling you green, then you're hearing God wrong. No, I'm hearing  God right. If you think God's telling you yellow, then you're hearing God wrong  and, well, you're hearing God wrong, and that means you're not a good  Christian. Well, no, you're hearing God wrong and you're not a good Christian.  Well, I can't associate with somebody who who can't even hear from God, and  they go off. And it creates all kinds of division. And it sounds silly, but the devil  eggs these things on a spirit of division. It's one of the big ones I served the  church that after a while, I discovered it was subject to a spirit of poverty, that  the there was money, and the people had money, but they were convinced for a  long time that they didn't have any money and they couldn't afford to do  anything, and they were letting things they were not even keeping up with  maintenance, a spirit of control. And we've talked some about people that would  try to control the church through influence, through friends threatening to leave  and take their friends with them, through threatening to stop their money, 

sometimes through I'm going to control you pastor by lodging a complaint with  the denomination or with the Association, or even starting rumors. And  sometimes these things work in combinations. A spirit of suspicion can lead to  division and they can work together. Spirit of religion can work with a spirit of  control to try and get things done the way they want. Various things like that.  Finding the origins of these unholy spirits can help you deal with them. The  second church I served is one where I think I mentioned that things were going  great guns, and we started a second service, and we'd gotten things to the point of even hiring an architect to look at building, and then the the original people  discovered they were being outvoted by the new folks, and they didn't have the  votes anymore. To to override and get things their way, but they still had enough  power and influence to create a big divide, and the church didn't split. What  happened was it just essentially drove most of the new folks away, but I came to discover that the story I'd always been told was that this church had been  planted as a daughter church from another church some miles away. The truth  was it was a church split, and it was some of these same folks when they were  younger who had split from that other church and started this one that I was  serving, and then when they were losing the power there, they fomented  another split, and not in a split that the second group started another church, but they just all split away and drifted away to other churches or to no church. But  knowing that that was that spirit of division that was working in that first split and  then was carrying, along with these same people to the second situation in the  third church that I served, the one that I mentioned that had the curse of poverty, it turned out as I looked back into the founding of the church the hundred years  before the land had been donated by a rich person in the area. This person had  a daughter, and this daughter, he wanted this daughter to marry one person,  and the daughter wanted to marry another person, and the the father said, If you marry this other person that you want to marry, I will cut you off of your  inheritance. I'll never give you any money, and you will be poor all the rest of  your life. And that was that was a curse. The daughter married the one she  loved anyway, and so the father did take the land that he had been planning to  give to to her and the husband that he wanted her to marry, and he took that  land and gave it to the church. And the said, Here, let's build a church on this  land. And that was the church that I came to 150, 200 years later and started  serving, and was still under that curse of poverty, because somehow that curse  of poverty had not stuck to the daughter. Apparently she was a godly woman or  something. But anyway, I don't know exactly how it worked, but it rebounded  and stayed with the land. And the interesting thing is, when we recognized that,  we dealt with it, we prayed about it, we cast that poverty out, and there was an  almost immediate uptick in the giving, and people started thinking differently,  and people started doing differently and moved into great ministry. So how do  you deal with unholy spirits? I John 3:8 says the Son of God came to destroy the

works of the devil. Jesus came most of the time. We say Jesus came to save us  and reconcile us with God. And that's true, but that's just one of the works of the  devil that he came to destroy. That separation from God, was a work of the devil, and he came to destroy that by reconciling us to Jesus, but he, I mean, to the  

father, but he also came to destroy all the other works of the devil. So you  expose them to light. Don't let the things continue in darkness. That's one of the  problems with, oh, I can't tell you. It's keeping it in darkness. The works of the  devil need to be exposed to light and then emphasize the opposite virtues.  Jesus said Luke 11, when an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert  searching for rest, but when it finds none, it says, I'll return to the person I came  from. So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept in in order. Then  the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the  person and live there, and so that person is worse off than before. So what you  do you don't leave the house empty when an evil spirit is cast out. You need to  invite the Holy Spirit to come in and fill that space. Invite the Holy Spirit. And so  one application of that is. Emphasize the opposite virtues, if, if you discover that  your church has a spirit of poverty as just as an example, you not only do a  prayer and a cleansing and binding and loosing, but you also you preach about  generosity and abundance and God's blessings If, on the other hand, you have  discovered that it's a spirit of greed and a love for money, then you preach about the blessings of not poverty, but the reliance on God and being content with  whatever you have, and God's trust and not putting your faith in riches so I  mentioned binding and loosing. Jesus gave his followers the power to evict evil  spirits in a number of passages. Luke 10:17, Mark 16:17, John 14:12, Acts 1:8,  that power was never revoked. This is not a time or place to go into how all of  that is done. I will tell you. Don't do it all by yourself. If you can possibly avoid it.  Have other people experienced, other people, learn from other people, who if  you feel God leading you into this, and I'm not talking just deliverance ministry,  even just to learn more about what I've been talking I haven't tried to teach you.  I've been what I've done in this lecture is not tried to teach you anything. It's just  to make you aware of the existence so that then you can learn more about these kinds of things. Because the more you are doing the work of God, the more the  devil doesn't like it. So, you know, but Jesus came to destroy the works of the  devil. Jesus wins. I tell people, I've read the back of the book, Jesus wins. So  you don't need to be afraid of it. You also don't need to be cocky about it, but  learn from people, and God wants you to be faithful. God wants you to do the  things that he's called you to do and to get them done. And you will, as you  relay, remain in Him, Abide in Me and I will abide in you and you will bear much  fruit, Jesus said, and the Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. That's what  he wants for you to bear much fruit. So remaining Jesus and I will see you next  time.