Ephesians 2:1-10 – “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  NKJV

  

If you remember, yesterday we discussed the “Spirit of Humanism” and now I would like to consider the other spirits the satanic spirit produces in our world.

• SPIRIT OF ALIENATION.

This spirit creates an attitude and environment where the individual is far from being a productive member of a local congregation, community, and society.  It is especially true in the realm of the spirit where the individual becomes a loner, isolated from others and uninvolved.

The word “alienation” as used in the New Testament means, “To be estranged; to shut oneself out from the fellowship and intimacy; to withdraw the heart, affections; and to be a non-participant; to live as an outsider.”  Without going any further that should identify how this would hinder growth in a life.

In this state a person may be “Saved, but alienated and withdrawn.”  They may be “Saved, but maintain and independent attitude and lifestyle and fail to provide benefit to others or receive it for themselves.”  They will usually, “not be maturing in their spiritual life, at least to the degree God has designed and desired.”  Another problem is they may find themselves unduly influenced by the “former spirit” which impacted them before coming to Christ.

What contributes to this spirit?  It has been my observation that it is often due to “unresolved offenses” or “unresolved conflicts.”  The Bible speaks of this condition as a “Sign of the Times” in Matthew 24:10, “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”  In this condition, people exhibit great “distrust” and will, at times, pursue one another with bitterness and hatred.

Taking OFFENSE is problematic and the word “Offense” comes from the Greek [Skandalizo and Skandalon].  It means, “To spring forward and back to slam shut.”  The image is a trap being closed where there is no escape.  In trapping, there is a “bait stick” used to lure the prey into the trap and Satan is a master at this tactic.  In human terms and relationships, it could be identified as “An obstacle on the path over which one falls, stumbles or is hindered.”  It is something that causes moral or spiritual ruin and often causes one to suffer injury or feel pain and results in the individual developing a strong attitude and sense of “distrust” and they frequently abandon or desert the one whom they ought to trust and obey and find it virtually impossible to recognize and submit to proper authority.  Unresolved offenses lead to strained relationships, produce distrust and skepticism, and brings about isolationism where roots of bitterness spring up and defile many.  Any of those attitudes left unchecked will have an incredibly negative impact on the individual and local congregation and the result will be deterioration and stagnation.

Once again, time constraints prevent me from going further so we will pause and pick up here in the next devotional.  God bless you richly is my prayer!