ZOMBIES
Revelation 3:1c I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
I guess if there was ever such a thing as Zombie, it may have been seen in the church of Sardis. Jesus said of Sardis that they looked alive, but were dead. There seems to be a fascination of Zombie’s in today’s television programing. I have never watched a program with them in it, and I really am not interested in doing it. But I have seen commercials as most people that watch any TV. The networks seem to really push their latest series. The best I understand a Zombie is someone that not really alive, but walks around trying to eat people up. When I looked it up on Google it said that it is a soulless corpse that has been revived by witchcraft in certain African and Caribbean religions. They also referred to them as the living dead. As to whether Satan and the powers of darkness can actually do this I don’t know. I do know that witches, warlocks and their churches called covens do exist throughout the world and especially in Africa and the Caribbean areas. They do have spiritual power that they get from Satan and the powers of darkness. The followers of Satan, Satan, and the powers of darkness have no power or authority over a Christian. They can try to oppress a Christian from an outward attack, but like with Satan himself one word in the name of Jesus and they are powerless. If there are real Zombies then I assume that they are certainly not Christians.
I guess if we were to say that a Zombie is a body without life and is controlled by Satan and the powers of darkness then in some ways TV is right. They are to be feared from the standpoint that no one should want to be like them. The sad thing is the world is full of people that are walking dead. We see them every day! They are on our streets, at our jobs, riding in our airplanes and sit beside us at sporting events. While they don’t have on rags for clothing and don’t want to eat our flesh, they are dead on the inside. In fact everyone that is not a Christian and doesn't have the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus in them has no life. Only the Lord can give us eternal life! Only a born again Christian can understand what I am saying. I didn’t know until I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and to come into my heart. When I did every aspect of my life changed. I even felt different. I had real joy. It wasn’t from a superficial temporal joy of seeing my favorite team win their game, but a joy for life itself. I even woke up excited and for no real reason other than the burden of shame and guilt that once continually pulled at me like the chain of Scrooge was gone. I had a new hope that didn’t depend on me. The cloud of frustration and despair that hung over my head was replaced by the presence of the Lord. I had life now and eternally through Jesus Christ. But like with the movies, Zombies (non-Christians) can drain the life right out of a Christian if we allow them to do it. In I Peter 5:8,9 it says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” Christians are constantly under attack. Chances are it will not be Satan, because like all angels he can only be at one place at a time. He is not omnipresent like God is. There is no place we can go where God is not. Scripture even tells us in Psalms 139:8 that, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in hell you are there.” But there are many demons that are constantly oppressing people and especially Christians. They want to turn us away from Jesus at all cost. There is nothing they will not do to hurt Jesus by turning one of his children away from him. They will give a person anything they want, if it will bring them eternal death just like what awaits of each and every demon. A demon even once said to Jesus, “Why have you come to torment us before its time.” They know they have no power over Jesus, so they try to hurt him through those he loves.
John 10:10 says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Satan and the powers of darkness can use other people, our jobs, even our pets to rob us of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit or Christ-likeness is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. I am sure you have had where everything seemed to be going great, and then like Lucy in “Peanuts” somebody pulls the ball out from under you! There is a good chance that the powers of darkness have motivated them to do it. Most Christians will see the attack as from the person and not demonic. This is exactly what they want you to think. If they can get a Christian angry and even hating someone, well they just hit a homerun. But all we have to do is use the key of the kingdom that Jesus gave us, and we are in control the situation and not the powers of darkness or the evil of this world. (Matt 16:19)
The powers of darkness want to destroy our witness for Jesus. They know that once they destroy our witness, even though we may still love Jesus, our ability to help others to become a Christian is greatly hampered. No matter how much good we try to do after falling into sin or destroying our image of being a Christian, people will always look back to that one incident. From then on we will be labeled a hypocrite at least in the eyes of the world. The powers of darkness will even try to kill our body! If they can kill our body they feel as though they will prevent us from helping anyone else become a lover of Jesus. Many Christians face death and even succumb to death all the time because of the powers of darkness. People will go to the best doctors and take the best medicine, but at best it only prolongs things. The reason is that it problem is not with the physical body, but with the powers of darkness that are attacking the body. Now I am not saying that all illness is caused by the powers of darkness but much is. The powers of darkness make us sick and then quickly tell us what medicine to take, knowing all along that they will not let the medicine work. They just don’t want the person to come against them. The demon’s know that they can not overcome a Christian standing in the authority of Jesus, and they even run the risk of the Christian casting them into the pit for all eternity never to come out again.
An example of this is from one at churches I had. One Sunday morning I asked if anyone wanted to come forward for pray to have Jesus heal them, and a visitor brought his family up. He said that his daughter who was around 13 years old or so, was having seizures. They were very hard on her and the doctor told them that if she didn’t have surgery she might die because of them. I along with several others prayed for her, but in a couple of weeks they were back and asked for prayer again. Once again we prayed a normal prayer of healing for her. Three weeks or so later they came back and wanted prayer again. This time the father with tears said that on Monday they were taking her to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis for brain surgery. He said that all the tests came back with a brain tumor on the front part of her brain, and that with so much removed the doctors couldn’t guarantee how normal she would be following the surgery. He asked this time to pray for the doctor’s to do a good job and help her. My heart was broken for him and them all. This time as I started to pray for the girl when I placed my hands on her she immediately went into a severe seizure. We sat her down on the front pew and everyone backed up. The father said just let us wait for awhile. The Holy Spirit told me that this was demonic and I need to pray in tongues for her. I just placed my hands on her head once again and started praying out loud in tongues. Shortly the severe shaking began to stop. Everyone just got quiet and stared. Then I commanded the demon or demons to leave her and never come back and then I asked Jesus to dissolve the tumor. By the end of the prayer the girl was pretty much back to normal, but she was obviously weakened by the seizure. They went back and sat down and we went on with the service. Next Sunday to my surprise and everyone else's, they were sitting in the back of the church. When I walked in and saw them I just stopped everything and told them we were glad to see them, but asked if they had to cancel the surgery. The father stood up and told us that the surgeon at Barnes Hospital in St Louis wanted to take one last MRI to know for sure how much he need to do and he could not find the tumor. He said the doctor came in and apologized, but he showed us the MRI with the tumor and the last one without the tumor. He said he had no explanation, but to just send her home. The father said he told the doctor that they had our church pray for her and Jesus took the tumor away. He said the doctor just looked at him. After the service I privately talked to the father about any demonic worship in their family. He told me that in their past generations there had been Native American worship. I prayed with him and he renounced any inherited bondage that this may have had on his family. Several years later they came back (they lived a long distance from our church), and he told me that his daughter never had another seizure or their family any other demonic attacks like what they had. Jesus certainly did a wonderful thing as he glorified himself in setting the girl free for the powers of darkness.
Jesus came to set us all free, and that whosoever that wants to come to him can find forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And remember what you read in John 10:10. Jesus said that he came that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am not sure what the problem was at Sardis that Jesus would say that they had a reputation of being alive, but were dead. But I do know where they and anyone else can find life and to its fullness, and that is with Jesus.
Have your asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart? If not do it right now! If you are under attack by Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world, ask Jesus for help and remember his keys to his kingdom that he has given you. (Matt 16:19)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we love you so much. Thank you for giving us life, and life to its fullness. Please help people all over the world Holy Spirit to believe, trust and love Jesus. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
