The Symptoms Are Not The Illness

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." - Ephesians 6:12

Have you ever gone to see a doctor about a physical problem you are having only to be told that what you are experiencing is not the problem but only as symptom? That you have been fighting the symptoms - all the while masking the real issue. We deal with what we see and feel. But very often, that is not the source of the problem we face.

I have been writing a good bit of late about trouble in our culture. Moral trouble. Blatant - in your face - problems. Things that you never would have imagined would be true in your lifetime. But they - as discouraging as they might be - are merely symptoms of the underlying illness. We don't have these problems in our country, and the world for that matter, because they are something new. To us perhaps, but not to the generations that have lived before us. 

The illness entered in when Adam and Eve chose disobedience over obedience - the illness is sin. Sin has been festering in the hearts of men and women since that fateful day in the Garden. Sin - a spiritual problem - that manifests itself in a relational one between mankind and God. And then its symptoms, which are legion, show themselves in - pushed pause for a moment - 

I almost wrote humankind instead of mankind. Mankind is not a misogynistic term. Oh it could be used that way - but it is not used in the Bible that way. Nor is it used by me in that way. There are some translations that are being rewritten to make the terms used more palatable to our culture. As if the Spirit of God is not enough. Read 2 Timothy 3:16.

now as I was saying ...

our daily life on this planet. I say "this planet" because they will be noticeably absent in heaven. We mistake the symptoms for that which we are resisting when really it is the illness which is spiritual and that is Sin. There is only one cure for Sin and that is faith in Jesus.

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." - John 14:6

The only way that you can come to the Father is if your sin has been erased.  The only way that can happen is through Jesus sacrifice. The problems we see all around us are symptomatic of a people who are far from God - thinking their symptoms are normal and right and acceptable. They are blind. But Jesus said.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." - Luke 4:18-19

Don't put your hope in politics or something other than Jesus. The underlying illness is spiritual not natural.

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone