The Divorce Every Christian Should Have 2

We have all probably at some point in time used the phrase, "That person has some baggage!" But what does that mean? According to Hebrews 12:1, the baggage that we possess are weights and sins. "Therefore, since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us."
The Holy Spirit idenities that we all have baggage, even the best believer. He also says something that is interesting, He says that this baggage "easily ensnares" us. As you are reading this I am currently teaching a series on this passage called, "Unfriend the enemy, Closing the door." This has been the key passage we have poured over. One of the things we touched was this phrase "easily ensnares." The word used in is "euperistatos", it means to stand around in every direction. In other words this weight and sin is skillfully surrounding us. I remember when we went on a mission trip to Yucatan, Mexico. We had so much luggage. We all had carry-ons and one to two pieces of check-in. At on point, as we were transfering this baggage, it was surrounding the whole team. We were engulfed in a sea of baggage! We could move.

Many of our familys find themselves in the same circumstances. They want to move, they want to go foward, as Hebrews 12:1 says, they want to run, but they can't because the baggage in their lives have surrounded them. And the more life experiences you add to the relationship the more baggage you have to continually move around. It was a nighmare for the mission team getting all that luggage to it's final destination.

What if when we say, "I love you, but...", we are really saying, "I love you, but I can not carry all this weight anymore!" What if when we say, "I want a divorce" we are really saying "I want to unload all this baggage that is surrounding me!"
So way don't we just say that? Again, it is not physical but spiritual. I wish I had a pair of "God goggles." (I made that up) So when hurting couples came into my office to figure out what is going on in their marriages, I could just hand them those goggles to really see what is going on. It would revolutionize not only the marriage but every believers walk. Once we got over the shock.
We are don't running around saying we want to divorce the evil spirit in our life or marriage because we are not always aware they are there. We do not see them as clearly as I saw the baggage in the airport. The enemy works in darkness. He kills us in secret. He does not want the spot light placed on him. That is the reason I believe they come in and out of our lives. if they don't hide eventually they will be found. We see this principle when for a few weeks every thing is great at home. The marriage issues have settled down, we are not fighting, the kids are doing their home work. There is this sense that we have a handle on it, (yet nothing was ever handled). We feel we have arrived, we finally take a deep breath (some of you are there) and then BOOM! Out of the blue, everything just goes crazy. You are at your wife throat, she is at yours, the kids "have lost their minds!" And you think to yourself, "Where did that come from?" "We were doing so good!" "What happened?" What happened is that the enemy of your marriage and your family stepped out for a little while.

Jesus explains this operation, "When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn't find any." Let me stop and say this, the enemy is hard at work in our lives and marriages, so much so that this spirits need a vacation! Jesus goes on, "Then it says, 'I'll go back to my house that I cam from.' And returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order. Then off it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, the man's last condition is worse than the first." Matthew 12: 43-45

When the evil spirits (baggage) that plague our lives take a vacation, we get a moment of peace. We sense it and think everything is better, even though we don't know why. All we know it is "good" we don't say anything as not to mess it up. In that case we have gain a false sense of security. How can things get better if they are never addressed? We have those "good" moment because the enemy maybe on vacation. He has been working 24/7, relentlessly surrounding us with issues and baggage. Now, that he has worked so hard he may believe he has us in a position or has us so messed up, that he can get some rest. So, he leaves... but he is planning to come back.

One summer, my parents lost their minds. No, I really believe that. Let me explain. You see I am the youngest of three boys and one year my parents left my two older brothers at home for a whole week! Yeah, now it makes sense, right? Who in their right mind would do that? But they did. **It was probably because we drove them to that state.
They may have thought they had done enough work with them that it was ok to leave get some rest. Well... I will explain as I go. The thing is my parents needed a break and praise God I was with them! But when they left they knew and my brothers knew they were coming back. My brother's obviously forgot that part. Because they experienced some freedom they had not had before, everything seemed "good."

Sometimes in our marriages, we experience those "good" moments, but it may simple be that the evil spirit we are married has just left for some R&R. We experience a level of liberity that has escaped us for some time. What happens is that we forget what it was like to be under that weight and we let our guard down. We relax, we start to beleive that we can handle this. So, we get our house in order, we sweep (not me, just saying), and we adjust the pictures on wall, putting everything in order. The whole time we are letting our guard down to the reality that the enemy is plannig to return. Yet there is still a vacancy, we will discuss that later.

**Let me make this clear for my safety, I am NOT comparing my parents to evil spirits!! Just the principle. Having said that let me finish my story.

My two older brothers were at home; experience the liberty that every child desires, forgetting mom and dad will eventually return. And they did!! But don't miss this. They returned like a day early! Yeah, you know how this is going to end. They returned a day early and totally caught my brothers off guard. One of my brothers was so stunned he even said to our parents, "But you were not suppose to be back until tomorrow!" I am not making that up. I added that to my "Do not do what your older brothers did" list. Needless to say the house was not swept or in order, but that goes with out saying. Follow me here. When my parents saw the state of the house, AS I REMEMBER IT, I believe they recuited some help! Because what happened next had to have required supernatural strength and I will leave it at that.

As funny as that may seem. This is really happening in our homes. We gain a little freedom, we may even find ourselves going to church, everything seems to being falling into place (From a counsel side nothing ever just falls into place, healing is labor intensive). But we are enjoying the freedom that we can not identify why we have it, we are just happy we do. Forgetting nothing has been address and there has been no closure of the doors. Now, what happens next is what we get tired of. The unclean spirit returns! But check this out, he may not just come right back in. But because we left the "front door" wide open and the shade pulled up, he can clearly see that some good things have happened while he was gone. He see that you may have been to church for a few Sundays, that you have started praying and reading the bible with your family, yet there is still a vacancy. He may even see that you are laughing instead of fighting. He sees there are smiles instead of tight lips. SO, what he realizes is that he now needs some help. No problem. He just goes and gets some help.

The Blitzkrieg

The German word blitzkrieg literally means, "lightening war." It denotes a concentration of an overwhelming forces at a high speed attack that breaks through enemy lines and defenses. Check this out, Through constant motion, the blitzkrieg attempts to keep its enemy OFF-BALANCE, making it DIFFICULT if not IMPOSSIBLE to respond effectively at any given point before the front has already moved on.
During World War II, Hitler used this military strategy to overwhelm surrounding country in his bid for world domination. By recuiting all available forces the Nazi army used this blitzkrieg to keep the opponent off-balance.

Jesus is describing this same tactic in Matthew 12. "Then off it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself." The enemy my knows it have to overwhelm that sense of "good" we may be feeling. It has to overwhelm the productive things that have taken place in his absence. He has to overwhelm our defenses. It could explain why we can go to church and sign praises to God and by the time we get in the care we are arguing with each other. It can also explain why we sometimes feel so overwhelmed in our marriages. We are in a constant state of attack and we find it difficult if not impossible to respond. In many cases, we end up in a worse state then before. We throw up our hands and surrender. My parents coming home early overwhelmed my brothers and throw them off-balance and they had to surrender. The situation then went from bad to worse.

Many of our marriages are under a blitzkrieg and we are just giving up, because we are under this lighing war and it is overwhelming us. We have been skillfully surrouned with "baggage." We are left broken because we love the other person but we can not deal with this relentless warfare. What if when we say, "I want a divorce" we are really saying, "I want to divorce this weight and sin that is surrounding me NOT you!" That understanding could revolutionize how we fight the war. Maybe then we can stop fighting WITH each other and start fight FOR each other.

To Be Continued...