Escape from the Dark Side
How much have we been influenced by the powers of the dark side?
We all have been subdued by the powers of darkness. We can sense their terror by reading the Book of Revelation or some novel which reveals a sinister plot such as Tolkien's trilogy.
Or we can more simply think of how each of us participates in disgusting selfishness at times. Without trying, we all came under the control of this master of darkness.
We were born under the control of the evil one. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
In spite of your many sorceries, |
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)
On the one hand, as the human race we have been 'compromised' to the devil early on by our ancestors. The evil one has access to us though he doesn't have total control. Mankind stays under His power by two special circumstances: Death and Desire.
1) Death: By obeying the evil one, we are under his control through death. We have to die. Death is not natural, but it is common.
2) Desire: We are more deeply controlled and manipulated to the degree we follow the desires that he has. In other words, even if we could escape from death, we would end up back in the same place because we would again follow our desires do the things the evil one does. Our natures are similar.
There is a battle for our lives. Without God's help we are lost. We belong to the devil and therefore live like him and share his destiny. From darkness to darkness.
How come we don't know about these things?
We are on the devil's side from birth. We are more comfortable with his way of doing things than God's. We are not open to God's ways and cannot do them. If we are honest, we don't even want to do them. For instance, no one has to teach their childen to do wrong. They just do it. This is how the scriptures describe man.
"Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." (Ephesians 4:18)
Why is it that participation in the occult or deep magic deepens this control?
Satan's total control over man occurs at his death. This is why the devil inspires suicide and suicidal thoughts. Before that, there is still a little light in him. Since man was created in the image of God, he has both a little light as well as a will which give God a window into man's life.
The light can best be understood by the conscience. Man is conscious to some degree of what God wants. Guilt arises when we do wrong. Man tries to drown out this 'little voice' by distractions or convincing himself there is no God or moral standards. This materialistic view is very prevalent. When getting more deeply involved in the occult, man steps into more deception. In other words, because he has overcome the sensitivities or cautions of his conscience, he can do evil and even get pleasure out of it. The scripture calls this a defiled conscience.
To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. (Titus 1:15)
He actually believes his evil is good. Terrorists are an excellent though tragic example of this. They no longer allow laws and love to govern what they do. They are in darkness.
By the will man makes decisions. The more his decisions fall along the direction of the evil one, the more his mind will be controlled by him. Those involved in deep magic or the occult often have many dark spiritual voices and encounters.
When trying to completely escape pornography's grasp, I actually woke up at night with sensual, nude dark woman beings next to me along with my wife. (I know it is hard to explain how dark beings can also be sensual, but they were). By God's grace, each time I responded by jumping up out of bed rather than letting my mind fall to their seductions. My wife knows well of these several encounters.
Even though we are under the evil one's control as non-Christians, we can give more and more of our will over to the evil one. The less sensivity we have toward the things of God and the needs of others, the more deeply we drift into the evil one's power. Evil spirits (demons) will hollow out places of command in our thoughts if we let them, and to a large degree they will affect our choices.