Stick demons?

    Years ago, I heard a famous evangelist, I think a little bit tongue-in-cheek, say, "You people in America don't know demons..your demons are little two foot high stick demons with an IQ of 2. We have real demons where I come from".  It was funny, but I thought then, "wait til you hang around here a while".   Maybe I am wrong, but I bet he doesn't tell that joke after living in America for a while.   Not if he understands the  battle.  The stick demons, with low IQ are on foreign fields.  The dumber the demons, the easier it is to see the flow of God's power in every way possible.  However, our demons in America our sophisticated, educated, and religious. They wear suits, carry big Bibles and thick checkbooks.  Like the Pharisees who Jesus said would come to steal, kill and destroy the abundant life He came to give us, they put on the Pharisee suit, look holy, sound holy, speak holy all the while resisting the manifestations of God on earth.  It was not the devil that Jesus called a "thief" that comes to kill, steal and destroy.  It was religious leaders.  I hate to say it but often,  it is not what you don't know that hinders the flow of God...it is what you do know.  When your head is full of educated reasons why God doesn't, can't, and won't do miracles, it is hard to get past those reasons.  When people hear the good news and have no reason not to believe it, the river flows.

   In America, we base our faith on almost anything and everything but what the Bible says our faith should stand upon....the manifestations of the Spirit and the power of God. (1st Cor. 24-5).   Just as surely as those Pharisees dressed to impress, so do religious people.  Did you know that those disciples that followed Jesus, that were our first leaders, were just ordinary people with no desire to impress anybody with their looks, clothes, money, size of ministry or extensive knowledge?  They didn't even have a Bible to carry around ...they just had  a powerful relationship with the Holy Ghost.  They just wanted to minister the Spirit and power, knowing that to be  the only way to provide a foundation for faith.  Remember singing "Standing on the promises"?  How many stand on the promises while ignoring what the promises demand we stand on?  Even those who teach faith often miss the point. Slowly but surely they slide over the slope into depending on education rather than relationship.  They end up worshiping the Word instead of the Author.