Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"When ye shall
see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by
Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place . . ."
Jesus - Mt. 24:15
Satan schemes to position himself in the midst of saints, but whenever he comes close to those precious saints, the Spirit of God moves away and leaves him grasping at air. All demons and Satan himself are attracted to the blessings of God, not repulsed by them. Those blessings remind them of their former home, but they cannot have them. They are cursed never again to be at home with Jesus, never again to feel the tender love of God, never again to know peace. They are cursed with memories of a goodness that they can never again enjoy.
Even if the children of God are fooled (O! that they were not!) and even if they welcome Satan's lovely, deceitful, religious spirit into their midst, he himself cannot feel God's presence because God pulls back His Spirit from him, and Satan is left grasping after glory that is eternally beyond his reach. Unfortunately, when God's Spirit withdraws from the places that welcome Satan's spirit, the saints who do that do not often realize what has caused the decrease in joy and power. Because they do not recognize as evil the doctrines and ceremonies of the Evil One that they have embraced, they cling to them, and Satan's spirit continues in their presence, poisoning the well from which they drink, while the Spirit of God is quieted by his doctrines and ceremonies. Most of the time, the children of God are puzzled as to why their former victory and rejoicing are gone. This is not a fictitious story; neither is it exaggerated. This is the history of every revival God has ever given to His people who partake of the religion of Christianity. Christianity has quenched them all, and it always will. It is an evil institution.
Any congregation that is deceived to give place to Satan's spirit will begin to die because he brings death with him, and the life of God fades away. Satan's spirit is "the abomination of desolation" because it makes desolate every congregation that welcomes it. It destroys the fruit of the Spirit in those believers who receive it, and it ruins the precious fellowship of the saints. Satan's desolating spirit makes the body of Christ void of fruit to God. It is an abomination to God, and it stands in the holy place whenever it enters into the hearts of God's own children. This has to be true because (1) Jesus said that it would stand in the holy place and (2) there is no holy place on earth into which Satan may enter except the temples of God's sanctified people.
If we resist the devil with faith in Jesus, he will flee from us, and God will draw near and magnify His glory in our midst. But if we are impressed with his appealing doctrines and attractive ceremonies, and if we begin to believe and practice them, we will feel the power and joy of the holy Ghost less and less as time passes, and we will be left standing in a desert wondering what happened to our glory. This is what happened to the glorious pentecostal movement of the early twentieth century, and to the glorious charismatic movement of the later twentieth century. Both were the work of God, but the people He blessed with His Spirit did not come out of Christianity, did not resist Satan and his ministers, and their "movements" died. The abomination that they received into their temples, the spirit of Christianity, robbed them and made them desolate.
Sister Julie told me yesterday in my office as she filled some envelopes with gospel tracts that one of her co-workers told her that she had recently begun attending the Sunday services of a Pentecostal Holiness Church. Julie was a little excited until she asked her co-worker if they spoke in tongues there, and her co-worker responded with a simple, "no". Sometimes, she told Julie, one would hear an "amen", but that was all.
What has happened to Pentecostal people? I will tell you what happened. "Christianity" happened to them, and God withdrew Himself, leaving them with Satan, whose ways they preferred. Now, just like Satan, Pentecostals in many, many places can only reminisce about how wonderfully the Spirit used to bless their parents and grandparents, how the glory of God used to fill their meetings, and how people used to roll across the floor under the power of God, or dance in the Spirit with all their might like David, or prophesy, or receive heavenly wisdom from Jesus, or be healed from sicknesses and diseases.
Christianity makes God's people like Satan in that it leaves them with nothing but memories of the glory of God. It steals from them their birthright in Christ, it kills the life of the Spirit, and it destroys the fellowship of the saints. I hope someday that God's children will mature spiritually to the point of abhorring Christianity as much as Jesus does now, and always has.