Breaking the Bondage of a Passive Spirit

Francis Frangipane

I want to again discuss our need, as Christians, to exercise spiritual

authority.  The fact is, if we do not use the authority of Christ daily

in our lives, no matter how hard we try, we will always be harassed by

the demonic realm.  And while prayer and repentance are irreplaceable

stages of deliverance, they may simply not be enough if complicating

your freedom is a unclean spirit.  In truth, you may actually need to

face your enemy and, in the context of your repentance, command that

spirit to depart from you.

Indeed, we have accepted the idea that God wants us to tolerate

oppression instead of conquer it.  Fear, self-pity, anger, immoral

thoughts or fleshly lusts will not go away by themselves. Your mind

must be renewed through repentance and the knowledge of God's word, and

if there is demonic activity exploiting your sin nature, that enemy

must be confronted in the authority of Jesus' name.

You say, "I don't have a problem with an evil spirit; my battle is with

sin."  I agree, your frequent failure in a particular area might

genuinely be rooted in the carnal attitudes of your old nature.

However, if you have repeatedly repented and still cannot find lasting

freedom, perhaps the issue is a combination of your sin and the devil's

manipulation of that sin. You see, the real power behind your iniquity

is often demonic in nature.

Even if you've embraced true repentance and found spiritual freedom,

there is a time when the enemy tries to re-enter your life.  Recall

that Jesus warned,  "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it

passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it.

Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came' " (Matt

12:43-44a).

Jesus tells us that, even if we have had a genuine deliverance from the

hand of God, a time may still come when that "unclean spirit" seeks to

return to the "house from which" it came.  The "house" it seeks to

re-enter is the darkness created by your pre-repentance thought-life,

and the way it seeks to access your soul is to masquerade as your

thoughts.

Jesus further warns that, when the unclean spirit comes back and finds

our souls unguarded, it comes with "seven other spirits more wicked

than itself" (Matt 12:45).  First, the enemy will infiltrate your mind,

seeking to plant a thought or seed an idea in your soul.  Then, he will

attempt to water that seed with a corresponding temptation.   As soon

as we discern the ungodliness of this thought, we can turn and take

authority over it.  However, if we fail to use our authority,if we sit

down inside and allow it to grow,  the enemy will then approach with a

full scale invasion.  Jesus says, "the last state of that man becomes

worse than the first" (vs 45).

At the first stage of Satan's counterattack, we must use our authority

in Christ and capture those initial, invasive thoughts.  Do not let

them multiply.  Do not allow them to dwell in your soul for even a

moment.  Whether you are fighting fear, lusts, anger or any other sin

with its corresponding demonic strongman, you are in a war for your

soul and the primary battleground is your mind. To win, in the midst of

all you do, you must guard your heart and mind from the enemy.  To do

this, we must exercise spiritual authority.

Pursue Your Enemies

God has called us to war.  He, in fact, has anointed us with the power

of His Holy Spirit.  Our prayers are arrows in the heart of our King's

enemies.  Jesus has given us authority over all the power of the enemy

(Lk 10:19).  Yet, the authority of the Lord is not just for guard duty

or defensive maneuvers.  The Holy Spirit desires that, as we follow

Christ, we take the battle to the enemy as well.  In that same Psalm

where David sings that he can "bend a bow of bronze," he also says, "I

pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until

they were consumed" (Ps 18: 37).

Let's make this clear: David was first a worshiper of God.  He didn't

pursue his enemies without first pursuing God.  However, when the Lord

led him into war, he thoroughly defeated his foes. Unfortunately, I know

many Christians today do not pursue their enemies.  They would rather secure

a little temporary relief than obtain an anointing in God that equips them

as a warrior.  The moment they finally receive a little peace, immediately

they begin to beat their swords back into plow shears.  They quit.

I will tell you a solemn truth: we either pursue our enemies or our

enemies will pursue us.   We must develop Christ's attitude toward

evil.  He came that He "might destroy the works of the devil" ( 1Jn

3:8). The Bible says, "hate evil, you who love the Lord" (Ps 97:10).

There can be no neutral ground.

Indeed, the Holy Spirit is looking for something in us that, like

David, pursues our enemy until he is consumed.  We are discussing

spiritual authority and possessing an aggressive attitude of heart that

causes us to grow into mature Christlikeness.  Jesus could live with

and forgive human failure, but He never allowed evil spirits to

influence His life.  He was aggressive toward His spiritual enemies.

Future Victories And Present Attitudes

There is a story in the Old Testament that captures well my concern

with the effects of a passive spirit.  Elisha the prophet was about to

die and Joash, king of Israel, came and, in an unusual show of

affection, wept over the man of God.  Adding to the intrigue, the king

then spoke the very words Elisha uttered to Elijah in the last hours of

Elijah's life: "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its

horsemen!" (2 Ki 13:14).

It is possible that the king sought some special power or

gift-anointing from the prophet before he died. Elisha, in fact,

accommodates the king, yet he tests him, ordering the king to take a

bow and arrows.  He then told Joash, "Put your hand on the bow."

Elisha then laid his hands on top of the king's hands. He said, "Open

the window toward the east," and Joash opened it. Then Elisha said,

"Shoot!" And he shot.  Elisha then proclaimed: "The LORD'S arrow of

victory, even the arrow of victory over Aram; for you will defeat the

Arameans at Aphek until you have destroyed them" (2 Ki 13:15-17).

God was going to honor the efforts of Joash.  The king had recognized

the Lord's anointing on His servant.  He had come to receive, by

impartation, the prophet's blessing as it pertained to the need in his

life.  Elisha actually "laid his hands on the king's hands" (vs 16).

Yet, one more test was required.  Elisha said, "Take the arrows," and

he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground,"

and he struck it three times and stopped. So the man of God was angry

with him and said, "You should have stuck five or six times, then you

would have struck Aram until you would have destroyed it. But now you

shall strike Aram only three times" (2 Ki 13:18-19).

Elisha was angered by the passive spirit in King Joash. The prophet

knew Joash did not possess the perseverance to pursue his enemies until

he fully conquered them.  Joash could possibly have been a great king.

Yet Elisha's anger burned at the king's passive approach to God's

promises: ultimately, many Israelites would die in the future raids of

the Arameans because Joash would only defeat them three times.

Elisha's anger actually mirrors the Lord's displeasure toward the

laziness of His people today.

You may argue, "God is love. Jesus would never be angry." I beg to differ. 

Consider the Lord's word to the church in Laodicea, a church that was overly

concerned with its own comfort and passive in its attitude toward spiritual

realities. Jesus said, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot;

I would that you were cold or hot.  So because you are lukewarm, and neither

hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Rev 3:15-16).

Jesus would rather we were hot or cold than lukewarm.  Does He still

love those He rebukes?  Of course, but He calls us to change our

attitudes.  It's not that passivity or laziness are such terrible sins,

like murder or adultery.  It is simply that such attitudes create an

psychological prison around a believer that actually holds us hostage

to our other sins.  

In our world, the spiritual passivity and indifference of God's people

is one of the most difficult things for the Lord to accept.  Indeed, we

are daily threatened by the potential of serious terrorist attacks or

the advance of perversion in our cultures, yet so many Christians

remain prayerless and inactive.  This is in spite of the Lord's promise

that if we will come before Him, humbling ourselves in earnest prayer,

He will empower us to pursue our enemies and defeat them.  But instead

of seeking God's face on behalf of the lost, too many of us are

immobilized by the grip of a passive spirit.

The Lord is not pleased with our spiritual laziness.  Elisha could see

that King Joash was a quitter just by the unaggressive way he struck

the arrows.  I'm not talking about the level of our energy, but the

level of fire in our obedience.  Today many nations are at a

crossroads: demonic initiatives have been successfully advanced that

not only decriminalize sodomy, but seek to legitimize the union of

homosexuals as another form of marriage.  In many states and nations,

homosexuals are already allowed to adopt and raise innocent children,

and we are too passive to rise against this outrage!

Jesus gave us His authority to "make disciples of all the nations"

(Matt 28:19).  Our authority is not limited to our prayers against

evil; God will help our efforts against wickedness as well.  In America

we have been asked not only to pray for our nation, but to take

action.  That action might be as simple (and important) as writing our

senators and congressmen ( www.afa.net ) telling them that we are

against gay marriages.  Or our actions might be to reach out to someone

confused and deceived about their sexuality and seek to bring them

healing.  But if we pray and do nothing more, we might actually lose

the soul of our nation, and I am not only discussing the USA, but many

other nations as well.  Our defeat might come, not because God's help

wasn't available, but because we saw the advance of evil and did

nothing.

Beloved, God has given us authority, He has given us the weapons of our

warfare to help us, but we need to get up and fight.  We need to repent

of a passive spirit and stand with Christ's authority in this day of

war and battle.

For maximum benefit, pray this prayer out loud :

Lord God, I thank You that You have given me authority over all the power of the enemy.

Forgive me for allowing my voice to remain silent and my will immobilized by a passive spirit. I realize to be an overcomer I must pursue my enemy until he is consumed.  You have given me authority over the plans and works of evil. You have created me to be a minister of Your righteousness. You have filled me with Your Holy Spirit and with fire.  This day I confront, renounce, and take authority over, the power of the enemy. I break the bondage of a passive spirit, in Jesus' name.  

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The other night I just happened to look up these definitions:

APATHY, COMPLACENCY and SOMNOLENCE

Definitions:

APATHY

Etymology: Greek apatheia, from apathEs without feeling,

1 : lack of feeling or emotion : IMPASSIVENESS

2 : lack of interest or concern : INDIFFERENCE

Main Entry: in·dif·fer·ence     Function: noun

1 : the quality, state, or fact of being indifferent

INDIFFERENT -   regarded as neither good nor bad

1 : marked by impartiality : UNBIASED

2    a : that does not matter one way or the other

    b : of no importance or value one way or the other

3 a : marked by no special liking for or dislike of something

  b : marked by a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern for something :

ie: indifferent to suffering and poverty>

4 : being neither excessive nor inadequate : MODERATE <hills of indifferent size>

5 a : being neither good nor bad : MEDIOCRE <does indifferent work>

  b : being neither right nor wrong

6 : characterized by lack of active quality : NEUTRAL

7 a : not differentiated b : capable of development in more than one direction;

especially : not yet embryologically determined  - in·dif·fer·ent·ly adverb

synonyms INDIFFERENT, UNCONCERNED, INCURIOUS, ALOOF, DETACHED, DISINTERESTED ,mean not showing or feeling interest. INDIFFERENT implies neutrality of attitude from lack of inclination, preference, or prejudice <indifferent to the dictates of fashion>. UNCONCERNED

suggests a lack of sensitivity or regard for others' needs or troubles

<unconcerned about the homeless>. INCURIOUS implies an inability to take a

normal interest due to dullness of mind or to self-centeredness <incurious about the world>.

ALOOF suggests a cool reserve arising from a sense of superiority or disdain

for inferiors or from shyness

DETACHED implies an objective attitude achieved through absence of prejudice or selfishness

DISINTERESTED implies a circumstantial freedom from concern for personal or especially financial advantage that enables one to judge or advise without bias

Main Entry: im·pas·sive    

1 a archaic : unsusceptible to pain b : unsusceptible to physical feeling :

INSENSIBLE c : unsusceptible to or destitute of emotion : APATHETIC

2 : giving no sign of feeling or emotion : EXPRESSIONLESS

synonyms IMPASSIVE, STOIC, PHLEGMATIC, APATHETIC, STOLID mean unresponsive to something that might normally excite interest or emotion. IMPASSIVE stresses the absence of any external sign of emotion in action or facial expression <met the news with an impassive look>.

STOIC   implies an apparent indifference to pleasure or especially to pain often as a

matter of principle or self-discipline <was resolutely stoic even in adversity>.

PHLEGMATIC   implies a temperament or constitution hard to arouse

<a phlegmatic man unmoved by tears>.