PASSIVITY OF WILL - SATAN'S GREAT TOOL
In these last days the world is being prepared for the Great Deception of Rev 13:11-8and2 Thess 2:8-12. A great conflict is being resolved - a cosmic struggle, but we are more than helpless bystanders... Part of Satan's preparation work to control people is to introduce emphases into society, and the Church, that lead to PASSIVITY of the HUMAN WILL. Expressions of this are found in;
1. False Religious Realm
Thinking things through intelligently gives way to a "feelings" based judgemental system. Other attributes concentrate on vacating the mind and will; eg. meditation techniques, flotation therapy, stress management, yoga, etc. The Buddhist/Hinduistic emphasis on `nothingness' being the ultimate state of being - Nirvana, chanting, mantras, even rosaries! [1] Note that witchcraft oppression generates a passive will in those under it's power....
There is often an emphasis on God's transcendent greatness (His `unknowability') and our nothingness. "Absorption into the cosmic whole" is an expression of this lie. We are nothing... But, God NEVER urges a state of vacuum! It opens individuals up to demonic control. He is always seeking to lead His people into a state of mature “eyes-open” active cooperation with, and participation in, His will.
It is common in such an environment for people to have false prophetic declarations over their lives – prophecies recorded and reviewed regularly, usually of some great ministry / influence they are going to have (if they stick by the particular group!). However, these false prophecies will keep the person away from their God-given area of grace gifting. And when the great expectations fail to come to pass, it is very, very common for a listlessness to come upon them; inactivity and non-participation in “ordinary Christian things” will follow. Their strong sense of chosenness / uniqueness to God’s purposes collapses into listless apathy and depression. The goal was too high and unattainable.
2. Modern `Laid-back' Attitude
"Entertain me" living. "They" ought to do it, and I will follow. Talk of "overwork" is often unfounded compared to what people faced and did generations ago (eg. the working hours in industrial Britain 200 years ago). Whole occupations are convinced they are overworked and stressed - teachers for instance.
"I've got to get out of the rat race - it's killing me". Consider Europe in 1940; or pioneering in the bush 100 years ago! We live with amazing technological aids to everyday work undreamed of by our parents. King David fell into serious sin through taking too much leisure when he should have been out busy at war. Idleness still makes a person easy prey for the devil! [2]
3. Modern Social Welfare Mentality
The "you do it for me society". Society owes me a lot.... they ought to.... someone else is responsible but not me. In politics, church, family life, whoever... It's no coincidence that areas with high dependence on welfare are also strong centres of occult activity (eg. Mt Druitt, the largest state housing area in Sydney, is an obvious example with its well-known level of occultic practices).
4. Political Systems
Most political parties in the modern era have little room for an expression of personal values. Once elected, the local representative has to toe the party line (usually decided by a small inner group), otherwise his own career path will be seriously jeopardised. Once a politician silences his moral conscience, in areas of relative ethical significance, for the sake of personal advancement, he has started down the road of moral passivity, that leads to even greater compromise. [3]
What's the bottom line?
The human will is being detuned through lack of exercise! People must act to get rid of passivity. If deceived in some religious sense, they must consciously, actively, revoke consent given to evil spirits of deception, and by their own volition, insist they retire from influencing them (Jessie Penn-Lewis develops this in her book, `War on the Saints'). [4]
Satan is a LIAR - he seeks to render people passive, with little impact on the outside world, by getting them to look inwardly, going by feelings, and under-using their intelligence. These are all marks of false religious ways. Once this passive framework is established it is easy for the devil to slip lies past their guard. We're told to refuse to give the devil a foothold. Paul tells Ephesian believers that THEY can do this [Eph 4:25-8].
2 Tim 2:24-6 is a vital principle in the recovery of people within the church from the deception of a passive will. Self-deliverance is called for - through realisation that they have been tricked! Although this limits the effect of other Christians in the recovery process, we are admonished, by Paul, to maintain a proper heart attitude toward the deceived brother/sister-in-Christ, in the hope that they will ultimately listen to truth, and be recovered from the (passive) snare.
Jesus said "I (will) to work" [John 5:17]. Paul activated his will to conform to the will of God [Col 1:28-2:1]. He was perpetually busy in the Kingdom. Adam's will was seduced from doing God's assigned work. Salvation sees restoration of the confession, "I choose to serve God". By renouncing Satan's (destroying) will, we resist him, and he must flee. In John 5:1 we see the paralytic of 38 years still fighting to move! He hadn't surrendered. Jesus honoured his persistent will power... There's no need to be deceived in these last days. Be strong and DO!
FURTHER MATERIAL
Some Causes Of Passivity
Familiarity - waiting for someone from somewhere else! Heightened expectation that "others" will come, do, perform, better than we ca. >>> paralysis of will and then, action. This can be cultivated from a very young age by over-zealous parenting, who leapt in to do what the child failed initially to accomplish effectively.
A long period of time has elapsed since a promise was received, or a need arose - Jesus rewarded persistent faith - where people refused to give up! Don't give up right on the edge of His answer's arrival... Abraham was commended by God for not letting go of the Promise even after many years of delayed fulfilment.
Loss of faith and replacement by a-pathos (lacking in passion). This can be caused by poor or false teaching -eg. the Dominionist-theology teaching on ‘taking the nation for Jesus’! It has never ever happened in 2000 years. Since this false doctrine became more widespread, we have seen many people go into massive disillusionment followed by apathy to the next (real) thing God does say.[5]
Association with leaders / groups with controlling spirits. We will make your decisions for you (eg. the Maranatha group of the 1980’s – now known as Morning Star Ministries). People that come out of cults are far harder to stir up for godly purposes than raw new believers. They have been trained to wait for the nod from their gurus…
Some Areas Passivity Affects
Loss of Christian manliness in men. Men were made to stand out (Heb for "male" = mark of recognition). This God-made characteristic has within it elements of "natural" leadership. And passive men get more easily sidetracked into useless, non-essential, and even morally dangerous activities.
Need for ongoing excessive substitutionary counselling. They will be continually seeking advice from others – beyond the boundaries of common sense or biblical norms (cult leaders encourage this).
Loss of decision-making - procrastination of important matters. Letting others make decisions for them, even in trivial matters.[6]
Not fully taking a hold of the promises of God. (Canaanite tribes to be eliminated Deut 20:16-17 Num 33:51-56 + 2 Kings 13:14-19 - half-hearted obedience).
Healing - joining faith with believers - In Nazareth, Jesus power to do mighty works was limited by their apathy [Mark 6:1-6a].
Loss of impact in evangelism - every believer is capable of witnessing, leading, and discipling outsiders to Christ. Not because of self-confidence but because we have been filled with the Holy Spirit of the Great Commission! The church goes barren and doesn't acknowledge it. People caught in this snare will usually go into an elitist, “deep teaching” mode as a substitute for their loss of basic soul-winning faith…
Antidote For Passivity Of Will
Recognise there is a cost to be paid for this.... perhaps loss of friends, material advantage, reordering of time management and habits. Some things just have to go…
Recovery of will by acknowledging the truth! 2 Tim 2:25-26. There's a mental component to this acceptance of truth. Involves repentance (sometimes corporate), in order to be recovered.
Decide to act! And act as the opportunity arises. Along lines consistent with revealed Biblical truth; know God's Word soundly and plainly. Then, be obedient to such commands as "ask and keep on asking" (Luke 11:1-13). Don't give up, don't let go…
Face your greatest fears and step out where paralysis of will once prevailed. David ran at the giant! Recognise the reality of the work of demonic spirits of fear warring against God's people to stop them coming to their inheritance.
But, the long-term rewards are wonderful! The big changes are not instantaneous. It's like turning a super-tanker around... Persevere.
I faced loss of effectiveness in Great Commission activity; repented, cried out to God, and got booted out of our group!! In our group. no decisions were made or actions undertaken without extensive consultation with leadership.... So, usually nothing happened! But, we played virtual-reality games (we talked of filling the MCG – 150,000 capacity - for communion!).
Ask yourself, how long since you were an effective part of the chain of witness to conversion? Discipled someone in basic Christianity? Saw someone honestly healed? Accommodated a needy person (or family)? Drove out an evil spirit? Be honest about your lack of influence for Christ with a repentant attitude. Ask God to renew your passion for the lost!
The Great Commission is the heart of why Jesus left the Church in the earth. And I want to remain an effective part of that. Now, I am not too busy to turn aside to the need of the lost.[7] This is now my principal reason for intimacy, baptism and regular filling of the Holy Spirit, tongues, study, hospitality, etc, etc. The concern for OTHERS!! especially those in NEED!!
Finally, the writings of Neil Anderson are very helpful on this subject. His material on “truth deliverance” is very appropriate (The Bondage Breaker, etc).
Let your faith be stirred again from a-pathy to action! Whatever it takes, it will be worth it - the sense of fulfilment; God's miraculous provision has come through to us as we took a stand against passivity of will many times; good health, sleep habits, the blessing of God resting on your whole situation.
[1] On a personal note : I have observed a marked increase in the incidence of people with a Roman Catholic background moving into New Age meditation techniques in recent years. Perhaps this is because of certain similarities between the practice of repetitious prayers, where the pray-er is taught that the continual repeating of certain prayers has a beneficial effect, and the Hindu mantra concept. [See Jesus' comment on this practice in Mat 6:7-8].
[2] The drug culture, with its laidback vacant-ness, is another direct door into passivity in our modern culture. Several ex-drug users have commented to me how deceived they were into thinking they were active, achieving great things, and had life firmly under control. They realized, with growing horror, after the Holy Spirit began opening their eyes, that they were in fact, in the opposite position - easily led / deceived, with little motivation, and loss of memory retention as well.
[3] This is probably the reason so many politicians end up in trouble with their personal morals. 1 Tim 4:2 mentions the effect of a `seared' conscience - how it becomes insensitive to judgments that previously would have pricked a tender conscience. It's possible the same trail is the reason why many salesmen become open to deception too - after lying repeatedly, to clinch deals, their minds become incapable of honest judgment. Again, at that point, they are open to further deception involving a passivity of will.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn in “From Under the Rubble”, commented on this in his (Soviet) Russia... The State system which exists in Russia is terrible, not because it is undemocratic, authoritarian, based on physical constraint – a man can live in such conditions without harm to his spiritual essence. Our present system is unique in world history because over and above its physical and economic constraints, it demands of us total surrender of our souls, continuous participation in the general conscious lie… When Caesar, having exacted what belongs to Caesar, demands still more insistently that we render to him what belongs to God – that is one sacrifice we dare not make. And no one who voluntarily runs with the hounds of falsehood or props it up, will ever be able to justify himself to the living, or to posterity or to his friends or his children
[4] Again, personal experience has shown that where people are struggling to be released from the influence, and `after-shock', of a religious cult system, it is very effective to have them name the controller(s) of their life and will, and formally renounce the hold once exercised. More often than not, the group will have some extreme non-orthodox teaching that gives it its `uniqueness'. It is vital the person renounce the teachings as well as the person(s) and their (lack of) ethics. We have found that often this proves to be an area of great spiritual conflict.
[5] We worked with a minister who continually announced a “new vision” to his people every 3-4 months.After this happened several times, the people wised up and began to out-wait the next pronouncement from the throne.... Knowing it would pass too! The trouble was their ability to be stirred the next time God really did speak was compromised.
[6] One such cult group in our city even demanded all holiday plans be submitted for approval!
[7] Years ago, I was behind in some church office work. The phone kept going; people dropped in. I moaned to the Lord, “Lord, I would finish your work here if I could be free of these interruptions”. The Holy Spirit rebuked me sharply, “These interruptions ARE my work!!” Sorry, Lord!!