"When all the men of Israel in the valley saw that the arm had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them."
This for me is a powerful picture of the spiritual state of humanity. There is no vacant "city" of the immaterial part of who we are, the "inner man" as the term so often found in the Epistles, or my favorite, the "hidden person of the heart."
Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 12:43-45
43 "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."
There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. Unfortunately, Hollywood has shaped our beliefs about demonic influence in people's lives rather than Scripture. I will leave the "possession vs. oppression" distinction to far more intelligent people than myself. The simplest way I know to say it is that everyone's "will" (the part of our inner man that chooses) has a dominant spiritual influence. The seat of influence within you and me is never empty. And even once the enemy has been evicted and the Holy Spirit fills that seat when are born again (John 3) through a vow of devotion to Jesus (Romans 10:9-10), we should not be so naive to believe that the enemy is not continually posturing to regain his seat (1 Peter 5:8)!
Who occupies your cities within?
Pastor Fred
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