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Scripture~II Corinthians 10.1-5 (NLT)
1 Now I, Paul, appeal to you with the gentleness and kindness of Christ—though I realize you think I am timid in person and bold only when I write from far away. 2 Well, I am begging you now so that when I come I won’t have to be bold with those who think we act from human motives.
3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
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A story is told of a guest preacher in a church in Cleveland being accosted by a man at the door following the sermon. The angry man exclaimed loudly, "Your sermon was lousy!" The local pastor, embarrassed by the outburst of criticism of his guest speaker, said to him: "Oh, don't pay any attention to that man. He's a moron. He only repeats what everybody else is saying."
The Corinthians scripture reflects Paul's frustration on personal attacks against him in his absence from Corinth. Paul was well aware of the negative energies that can arise when a person is trying to serve as a spiritual leader. I truly believe that some supposedly "Christian" persons can become the agents of unseen negative spirits, even as some persons can become the agents of unseen positive spirits. Some otherwise good persons can infect whole spiritual groups, like a cancer spreading in the body.
This is where spiritual warfare comes in. We must use "God's mighty weapons," not the "worldly weapons," to overthrow evil fortresses of ill-will, maliciousness, anger, greed, obstinacy, harshness, greed, ... that hold back the church or other religious group from being the disciple community Christ is calling it to be.
Transforming a spiritual community is not simply planning and implementing programs. After serving in spiritual work in the churches for over thirty years, I have seen much malevolence in churches. Much of the evil is from persons who otherwise appear good persons. Indeed, the witnessing of this evil has been key in my returning to believe in personal, malevolent forces~call it demons, evil spirits, evil energies ... whatever~at work behind the scenes to deter and block the work of Good.
Remember, Love is the most offensive thing to evil in all its forms. Love can drive evil into hiding, but it can initially bring it out to fight to kill the Love. I used to think ... if only I was a really loving pastor. But I went into one church being a caring, loving, compassionate pastor, and "demons" came out and sought to maul my reputation and ministry; persons like demon-carriers sought to defame supporters and myself. I had never seen such irrational hate and violence enacted by persons claiming to be Christian. The avowing "Christian" church showed me the demonic face of evil more than any irreligious people I have ever met.
Paul provides us an example of taking captive these malicious and controlling forces, that are more powerful for being like demons garbed in angel wear:
13Anyway, they are no more than false apostles and dishonest workers. They only pretend to be apostles of Christ. 14And it is no wonder. Even Satan tries to make himself look like an angel of light. 15So why does it seem strange for Satan's servants to pretend to do what is right? Someday they will get exactly what they deserve (II Corinthians 11.13-15, CEV).
However, oddly, my own denomination has been working tirelessly at church transformation for years. Though the Gospel shows us Jesus confronting personal, spiritual evil forces repeatedly, not once have I read or heard a leader in this transformation speak of this transformation being more than structural or in some vague sense spiritual renewal: that is, they have totally failed to address with clergy and laity confrontation with the possibility of evil forces being behind much of the lack of Christian spirit in churches and the sad demise of many churches. Indeed, we have seen an increase in the violent meanness within many of our churches, and this is not addressed as truly having a demonic component.
This writing may surprise my readers who know that I am not fundamentalist or ultra-conservative; rather, I am a moderate-progressive mystic. No, I do not believe in a devil behind every bush, nor do I believe some Satan is involved directly in all evil.
I do believe there is a spiritual world of many unseen forces, benevolent and malevolent. I believe that, like Paul, in union with Christ we cannot confront such with carnal, or worldly, weapons. We cannot transform evil by evil. We must resort to spiritual warfare: that is, spiritual means to bind such forces.
I was leading worship. I sensed the negative spirit captivating a person was harmfully influencing my freedom to lead worship. I silently prayed a binding prayer over the person. The influence of negativity was immediately lifted and a new freedom to lead arose and remained through the entire worship service.
This past week I spent a night in prayer. Finally, about 3 AM I went to my prayer room and read, prayed, and meditated; I came to realize the need to claim the power of Christ over two persons who had handled some matters in ways that led to the potential loss of home and ministry of my wife and me. Though these two persons are higher in status of church and worldly power than I am, I realized that I could claim that there power would not in any way dominate my wife or me. I placed, in prayer, their power under me, so that their power to make decisions could not hurt my wife or me. I felt in my body the shift when this authoritative prayer was offered to Christ.
We, like Paul, face both malevolent and benevolent persons who can make choices totally out of sync with the Spirit and that can potentially hurt us. Evil is evil, whether such is done with awareness or by mistake. With the weapons of faith, love, and hope, trusting the power of God, we can speak forth, in the name of Christ, for protection and guidance. We can claim the Divine power of Christ over both seen and unseen harmful forces.
I offer important reminders.
First, we Christians cannot afford to remain, as many of us do, ignorant of the reality of evil and its unseen potentials to do great harm to the church and to us.
Second, we do not need to over-stress the presence of unseen evil forces; this itself might increase such power in our lives and contexts, or create illegitimate paranoia.
Third, we are not to fear evil, unseen forces.
Fourth, simply because someone is malevolent does not means he or she is possessed by some evil, personal force. Some persons, I do believe become possessed by personal evil.
Fifth, we need to be careful in discernment to make sure our assigning evil influence to someone is not due to our own act of psychological displacement or projection.
Last, we are never to seek to bind the evil influence of anyone or offer a shield of protection from such influence with anything but a disposition of Christian Love.
How does all this fit in contemplative living? A contemplative will sense, however he or she defines it, evil manifestations more than other persons, for the contemplation ushers one into more subtle dimensions of realities. Again, contemplatives may not all agree on how to define these realities, but they will encounter both good and evil ones.
For you involved in spiritual work, I urge you to begin each day praying the presence of Christ to cover you and your work of ministry. In fact, a prayer of such protection in the Name of Christ is fitting for every Christian: pray it over church, spouse, children, meetings you will be attending, persons who you sense are under evil duress, ....
This writing is not comfortable for me to write or send out. But I cannot say "no" to the logic of doing it. If I truly know the presence of Good forces, I cannot deny the reality of Evil forces. Of course, I allow for persons to define these forces in differing ways. But to deny them, that does not make sense to me, and I believe leaves us open not to rightly address the evil realities that can be among us, as evil reality was oppositional to the spiritual ministry of both Jesus and Paul.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, and their fish, Hope, in Florida. Brian is vowed at Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and inspires others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ. He advocates for a spiritually-focused Christianity and the renewal of the focus of the Church on addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons and empathic relating with diverse spiritual traditions, East and West.
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