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Dispelling Spiritual Darkness
Darkness is the spiritual force that takes over when the will of YHVH is rejected. This gives the enemy legal right and authority. We are influenced by this darkness around us. We fall into temptation, we turn away from YHVH, our prayers are not effective, we don’t hear YHVH’s voice and don’t know His will. As believers, we are called to be lights in this darkness. The question is, are we effective in dispelling darkness or are we helping it along? This article is meant to help believers to be effective in this task.
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Knowing YHVH
An artist is known by his work. If you were to show a person interested in art a certain masterpiece, he will know who the artist is. YHVH is the greatest Artist ever. His art is visible all around us, in every living being and creature, in nature, in the setting of the sun. YHVH can reveal Himself in this way to us for He is the Creator of all. This is not the only way YHVH reveals Himself to us…
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Making your voice heard on high
The next three appointed times on YHVH’s calendar is approaching, Yom T’ruah, Yom Kippurim, and Sukkot. It is always a good thing to “take stock” of our spiritual condition before we observe these days. Especially Yom Kippurim, a day of humbling ourselves before YHVH. It is part of Jewish tradition to do introspection for forty days before Yom kippurim, the month of Elul and the Ten days of Awe (the first ten days of Tishri.) The word “elul” means search, so this is very appropriate as we search our hearts during this time. People examine themselves and forgive and ask forgiveness of those they have wronged. Though we should be doing this all the time, I find it a good tradition. It’s like a spiritual house cleaning before the fall feasts. I am currently reading through the book of Isaiah, and Isaiah 58, struck a cord with me and it fits in very well with this context of searching our hearts. It showed me that only keeping YHVH’s commandments is not enough. If we only keep YHVH’s commandments, we are participating in false worship. This may seem like a harsh statement, but allow me to explain.
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Petitioning YHVH
Hannah was childless and it caused her great sorrow. She petitioned YHVH for a son, and He gave her children. Adonijah petitioned Bathsheba for Abishag, she was beautiful and he wanted her to be his wife. However, he had ulterior motives…Esther risked her life to petition king Ahasuerus for the life of her people. Job, after suffering so much hardship that he could not bear it any more petitioned YHVH to take his life. Instead YHVH healed him and restored back to him what he lost. The Israelites petitioned YHVH for meat with devastating consequences. Zacharias petitioned YHVH for a child, and this child was a great prophet who prepared the way for the Messiah. We can learn much from all these narratives. A petition is a form of prayer, but whereas prayer encompasses all communication with YHVH, petition is to make a specific request of YHVH. It can be compared to a formal request made to a sovereign. The purpose of this study is to understand what it means to petition YHVH. We shall look at each of these narratives to see what we can learn.
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Spiritual utterance, words from above
The topic of spiritual utterance has been on our list to study for a long time now. This topic can be controversial, but needn’t be. We will focus on what is written about this in Scripture. There are actually three kinds of spiritual utterances found in Scripture. Speaking in tongues is one of these.
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Know thy enemy!
We need to know our enemy if we want to succeed in battle. As we know, our battle is not against flesh and blood. We need to know who these powers of darkness are that we need to struggle with. What does the Scriptures teach us about the adversary? Do we think about the adversary only with our Western mindset or do we really acknowledge what the Scriptures teach us? He is real and we need to know how he operates if we want to overcome his system.
