Reading the account of the birth of Jesus I think we look at the story through our own life perspective and miss the truly humbling circumstances in which Mary and Joseph fulfilled the will of God. Then they had to deal with the circumstances of both poverty and the hatred of the government through king Herod.

Receiving Jesus into our lives is meant to be a transformative experience, not a transitory experience, nor a one-time experience. It was meant to be from now through eternity, but sadly it is often a short-lived experience, just like the many broken marriages of today.  

This is the fourth article on walking in the Spirit dealing with the specific topic of demonic activity. We have covered a lot of ground and yet the subject of the demonic is so vast I have just scratched the surface. In this article, the last in the series, I intend to talk about how we can challenge demonic spirits, which the Bible calls evil spirits. There are many books on deliverance and this article is not intended to be exhaustive. It is meant to highlight the main struggles when trying to set people free from the demonic.

This is the third article on walking in the blessing and power of the Holy Spirit. This subject has many aspects but I wanted to address what I think is lacking by many believers, especially by pastors. Walking in the Spirit is far more than walking in the gifts of the Spirit. It should also encompass the knowledge and freedom of walking without the hindrance of demonic spirits that still operate on the earth as they did in biblical times.

I started out the first article talking about the “Demonic Realm” for a number of reasons. Primarily because most professing Christians rarely, if ever, mention the subject when talking about spiritual matters. But Jesus capitalized on casting out demons wherever he went.

When we as Christians talk about walking in the spirit do we acknowledge the fact that many people walk and are led by the demonic realm and not the Holy Spirit?  When watching the nightly news one has to consider the “Demonic Realm” as having a major role in the violence and hatred that is happening.  The terrorist group Hamas murdered thousands of innocent civilians, including killing babies, for no more reason they they hate Jews. If one can not see evil personified then we are hopelessly ignorant and will surely suffer for it. The world denied evil in Hitler and his Nazi regime and the world experienced a world war because of it. 

All too often we grow up listening to others around us in order to build our concepts about our self worth and identity.  The world builds the idea of their identity and self worth measured by what they look like or what they can accomplish and this produces a terrible platform for building self-esteem and identity. Christians should be developing their identity and self-worth from the word of God and why he made us. Mind you, I have heard some really twisted ideas in sermons about a persons lack of value.  It makes me wonder if these preachers ever read the bible as a whole because they paint the picture that people have no redeeming value in themselves at all and God only saved us because he felt sorry for humanity, not because God valued humanity even with our brokenness.  

Receiving Jesus into our lives was always meant to be a transformative experience, not just a transitory one or a one-time experience. With that in mind, Jesus ultimately came to set the sinners free by revealing the Father’s heart for humanity. Scripture says that all of us are being ruled by the spirit of this age that is working in the world.

If a person reads the four gospels at face value, they will quickly see Jesus was not trying to get big crowds by using some fancy teaching or preaching method, but rather by making the truth simple and accessible for the common person. He did share stories to illustrate biblical truth, but often he would explain God’s blessings were tied to a person’s obedience. If a person did decide to follow him he would explain that being a follower was more than just coming to hear a weekend message. Following Jesus meant that he expected his disciple would be 100% committed to him and not just acting like it was a part time job.  To follow Jesus meant you were becoming a “Radical Person”.

Many Christians who believe in the forgiveness of Christ often struggle with guilt and shame, even after coming to a saving experience in Christ. Shame is that awful thing that hinders our trust in the Lord and becomes a roadblock to intimacy with God. In a previous article, I dealt with guilt, but in this article I want to deal with the fruit of guilt, which is shame. Shame is the emotional feeling that can stop our development emotionally, physiologically and practically as we seek to develop our God given abilities. If a person has unresolved guilt, or what I call “Shadow” guilt, shame chains us to our yesterday.