Recently whilst on holidays I observed an incident that caught my spiritual attention. A boy put his breakfast on a table in a park then turned away to do something and a bunch of seagulls swooped and devoured it. The boy fell to the ground in despair and sobbed his heart out. Then I heard him say these words … ‘I don’t deserve to have any breakfast’.

What would be your observation about this scenario? Most people would feel sorry for the boy, but, the fact is, there’s something wrong when someone blames themselves for someone else doing the evil deed, and there’s definitely something wrong when you have a big mood because it didn’t work out the way you wanted or expected. Further observation of the family’s dynamics revealed that the boy clearly felt inferior to his older sister and was obviously envious of her better favour with the parents. The real issue was envy and inferiority, not the breakfast loss. The seagulls simply exposed the sin issue.

I suggest to you that sin sees the pain and feels sorry for the boy, whereas, faith sees the sin.

Most people, including Christians, diagnose everything through the outward appearance. They don’t stop to consider and seek understanding from the Lord; they just move directly into judgment based on their feelings and observations. This is sin and the root of it is one’s own unseen envy … ‘the spirit in us lusts to envy.’ (James 4:5)

Why can’t we see our sin? Why can we see everyone else’s sin? Why do we blame others for our hassles? Why do we like telling others how to behave right, yet can’t see we live in our own sin?

Humanity uses ‘good‘ to measure their sin

Sin isn’t measured by ‘good’, it’s measured by ‘faith’. Romans 14:23

The fact is, everyone is blind to their own sin while ever you camouflage it with good works, while ever you blame people for your issues instead of taking responsibility for your sin, while ever you wish you had what someone has got, and while ever you tell people what’s right and wrong. The rich young ruler (Luke 18) couldn’t see he was a sinner, he could only see his good works; yet the pride of his good works prevented him from understanding the Master and ultimately lost him his salvation from his sin.

But, what causes us to act this way in our self-defence?

The ultimate answer is sin, and SIN = ME is the centre of MY world. Whenever you’re the centre of your universe, everything you do is sin, both good and bad. Sin argues that it does good and won’t be told it’s sin, whereas faith argues that your deeds are sin. No one knows they are the centre of their universe until they see their sin, and you can’t see your sin until you sacrifice your terms and conditions.

Jesus came to save us from our sin, not to make us good, and if you use good to blind yourself to your sin, you go to hell, not heaven.

My daughter left home at 20 years of age with a chip on her shoulder that her sister was more liked by me. In her envy she determined that no one was ever going to tell her what to do. The fruit of this envy-grudge led her to have multiple sexual relations with a range of men. Eventually she fell pregnant and thus being a single mum the government gave her a pension of around $900/fortnight. In other words, the taxpayers pay for her sin.

Sin feels sorry for the victim and finances it; sin doesn’t confront sin. I’ve told my daughter she’s welcome back into the family when she repents of her sin, and not before. If I allow her back before she repents, the demon in her will always be challenging my spiritual authority. Like the prodigal’s father, I have to pay the price of being mocked and criticised by Christians and the world and wait on God’s principles to see what God will do. It’s funny how the righteous get blamed for not being nice and the sinner gets the empathy. When you’re dealing with demons, this is generally the case.

Sin = not doing what the Word of God says to do.

Modern Christianity plays the same feeling game; it helps people, it doesn’t confront the sin. 1 Corinithians 5 and Ephesians 5:11 challenge the church to confront the sin and not turn a blind eye to it, but the church shies away from this unpopular principle preferring to be nice to the sinner, and conveniently believing that it’s love. But, love is unconditionally surrendering to the will of God. It’s clear what the Word of God says to do when sin has been committed; therefore, ignoring the principles of God’s Word because it’s not the acceptable norm, is not love, but rather telling God what’s right. That’s demonic. God’s Word says we ignore people’s sin because of our own sin and pride (1 Corinthians 5:2).

When I confront demons in fellow Christians, it always comes down to “you won’t tell me what to do”. Demons tell you how to behave; they hate being told how to behave. It’s always a battle of wills and headship, and a faithful Christian must stand on the Word of God and wait on God despite the attacks against you. Demons blame and demons boss, and demons use intimidation and manipulation and obligation to control you to their will (2 Timothy 2:26).

The irony is that demonic Christians are very happy to point out your sin but don’t know they are in sin themselves, they can only see the breakfast and the single mum.

Recently I received a letter of apology from a woman that had cursed me and my family to death some 15 years ago. I had not agreed with her doctrine of the Christian’s right to always get prosperity and to tell God to do for them whatever they wanted as the privilege and right of being a son of God, so she cursed me. From her perspective, the letter was an apology, but the reality was, she had gone to God and repented, and was writing to tell me to do the same or I would end up sick. She was telling me how to behave and still threatening me with sickness if I didn’t do what she said. This is what demons do; they boss and TELL, and they blame you if you don’t do what they want.

The funny thing is, she never apologised to me, she apologised to God, and her motive for doing so, according to the letter, was to regain the ‘blessing’. In other words, her apology was for her, not for me. This letter was confirmation of her sin which she couldn’t see, nor could she be told that it was sin. Demonic Christians always act this way. If you dare say it’s sin, they bite at you. Demonic Christians argue that if they’ve forgotten about their sin and you haven’t then you’re the one in sin. David didn’t forget the sin against him from King Saul or Shimei; rather he held no grievance.

Is it possible to be a Christian and have a demon?

Well, Yes! God owns everything so He can exist in any vessel He chooses. He’s not restricted to clean vessels. Think about Samson, King Saul, Judas, Peter, Simon the sorcerer, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, the tormenters in Matthew 18:34, and Satan talking directly with God in heaven about Job. It’s certainly possible to be a Christian and under the influence of demons.

But, I suggest you are not saved until you give up your terms and conditions, because these are the things that give the demon power over you.

It seems to me that people come to Christ with certain terms and conditions. They tell God what He’s supposed to do for them based on their terms and conditions … ‘if I do this, then you must do that’. Perhaps the most common terms and conditions are the expectation that God will make my life easier, and that God will fix my problems, and the expectation that if I repent I’ll never fall for the same sin again, and the belief that if I’m good surely God won’t punish me. Can you see that’s just arrogance and it’s sin?

There’s no way I would dare tell God what to do. I came to Christ unconditionally, to be told by Him what to do, but I’m discovering that this is a rare phenomenon, and that’s why people can’t repent; they’re apologising for themselves, they judge their sin by their goodness, and they aren’t surrendering unconditionally to the Father’s judgment; thus, they have no faith and they can’t get saved. Unconditional means I come to Christ with no terms and conditions of my own. The rich young ruler came to Jesus with his terms and conditions and wouldn’t sacrifice them for Jesus’ terms and conditions. You can’t hear what I’m saying spiritually on your terms and conditions; you’ll only hear what suits your conditions.

In 2 Kings 5, Naaman comes to Elisha to get healed of his leprosy. Elisha lays down certain terms and conditions, but Naaman, in his pride, objects. He was only healed when he gave up his pride and surrendered to Elisha’s terms. It’s interesting to note that the slave girl held no grudge about her circumstances and was instrumental in introducing Naaman to her God. God puts us in uncomfortable situations for his purposes and glory, but most of us demonically murmur (1 Corinthians 10:9-11). Just like Naaman, we come to Christ to get fixed up, and just like Naaman we come with our terms and conditions. You won’t get saved under your terms and conditions because you can’t repent on your conditions.

Pain always happens for a purpose.

Recently, a friend came to me to get instruction on using an XL spreadsheet. As soon as I pointed out some errors he defended himself with lengthy explanations as to why he had done it that way. I responded with ‘that’s fine, but that’s still wrong.’ I could feel I had offended him. I left feeling guilty that I had been impatient and unwilling to listen. I began to feel that he may no longer like me. I turned to the Lord and asked Him to show me what was going on. After turning to the Lord, I saw differently. I gave up the fear of what he thinks of me, and I chose to wait on God for His information, without expectation of time frame or even of having to receive any information at all from Him.

I began to realise that I had been duped by a demonic spirit in my friend into worrying about myself and what people think of me. That’s pride and it’s sin. I didn’t repent of my pride because I hadn’t fallen to the temptation, but if I had’ve succumbed I would have repented. This demon was telling me how I was supposed to behave towards it; it wasn’t listening to instruction but rather objecting to it, and at the same time it was manipulating my feelings to make me feel the baddy.

This is how demons operate to take control of you, and if you haven’t come to the point of unconditional surrender to God’s will, you are repeatedly vulnerable. The interesting fact is, that God used this particular experience so I could help several other people see spiritually when they came to me with the exact same scenarios.

In 2 Kings 6:17 Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened to see spiritually. The battle is never the circumstances you see; it’s always unseen (Ephesians 6:12) and you have to be surrendered to see it.

Why don’t Christians like correction?

To demonic Christians, correction = I’m no good, or I’m a failure, or I’m stupid; it makes me feel bad; it’s a put-down. Can you see that just like the boy who lost his breakfast to the seagulls, these definitions expose your elevated pride? They’re all centred around ME and how I feel. To a true Christian, correction is important for instructions in righteousness (Hebrews 12). If you are not correctible, you’re a bastard, not a son, and you’re really saying …’you won’t tell me.’ Resenting correction and instruction is the fruit of demonic envy.

If you determine you are not to be corrected you usually determine you have to be good. Therefore, the demonic Christian is always looking for the DO (Luke 18:18) to make them look good and feel good, and they support their ‘good’ claim with education status, intellectual status, harmony, manners, helps, perfectionism and skills. The problem is, good is not the issue, sin is the issue, and camouflaging your sin with good won’t save you. The demonic Christian argues they are good; but faith argues it is sin. Demonic Christians demand to be told they are ok; that’s sin, not love, so clearly you can’t accept correction if you must be told you’re ok.

If you’re not correctible you can’t say “I’m wrong”, and if you can’t say “I’m wrong” you can’t repent and if you can’t repent you can’t get saved from your sin.

The whole of our modern western society functions on good and ignores the sin, and the modern church practices the same mechanism. This confirms to me that the church is really the world, and until the church separates itself from the way the world does it, and comes back and faithfully stands on the Word of God despite the persecution, you won’t see the true church.

If you want to repent you can. God didn’t make it hard. If you can’t repent it just simply means you really don’t want to give up your terms and conditions.

Pastor John Jamieson