By Faith, Not by Sight

The Church Age is unique. Unlike the age of Israel before us, we have no formal priesthood (the Levites) to represent us to God. In union with Christ we are a “royal priesthood”; we represent ourselves (1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:9). We are not under the Mosaic Law (Galatians 3:23-25; 4:19-31). We are indwelt by God’s Spirit so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. Conformity to Christ results in the fruit of the Spirit, against which there is no Law (Galatians 5:22-23). There are many other contrasts between the age of Israel and the Church age, but there is one principle, one distinctive, unique to our generation: The principle of Intensification.

“The feature of intensification is inherent in all realms; the physical and the spiritual. In nature, harvest is the intensification of a process. The end is but the full outworking or development of what was inherent in the beginning. We are living in an age when, in every realm, this process has reached an enormous proportion.” T.A. Sparks

Sin, lawlessness, and deception have always been with us. They are from the beginning. But in our age, called the “last time” (1 John 2:18; 1 Peter 1:20; Jude 1:18) and the “last days” (Hebrews 1:2; 2 Timothy 3:1-9), we draw ever closer to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom and the final dethronement of the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We know from Revelation 12:12 that the nearer we get to the end of this age, the greater becomes the wrath of Satan, and the more intense become his attacks on God’s people; whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.

In Ephesians 6:12 Paul says we “wrestle” against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world. In the original ‘wrestle’ is a description of intense conflict, not mild conflict. As the time of the coming of the Christ draws near, the conflict between the people of God and the forces arrayed against us intensifies. Demons go insane (maybe I should say more insane). We saw the intensity of the attacks against Christ in His humanity. The church is the body of Christ, and as such, faces a similar conflict, especially for those in the church who intend to go on to God’s full thought for their lives. Each step forward is met with fierce resistance. The greater our spiritual advance, the greater the antagonism against us. We are at war. And in the church age, that war is the hottest battle in the history of mankind.

The forms this war takes against the saints are varied. The primary form (which has always been at the top of Satan’s list) is deception. As bad as persecution is, the most effective and lasting way to neutralize the spiritual impact of God’s people is to deceive them.

We see deception beginning early in the church age. In our generation deception is global and is greatly intensified in both saturation and subtlety. There are many truths we simply don’t understand anymore. Our thoughts are clouded and distracted. The key principles and concepts of the teaching of this dispensation are a mystery to us. But what’s really scary is that we believe we are fine (we would say there’s always room for improvement of course, but overall, we believe we’re doing great),

“Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and do not realize that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind.” (Revelation 3:17)

Do we even consider it possible that verses such as this could apply to us? Jesus isn’t talking about material poverty when He says the Laodecians are “poor”; He’s talking about spiritual blindness. We couldn’t be as closed or as blind as the Laodecians, or the Galatians, or the Hebrews, or the Corinthians, or . . . . could we? Why do we think we’re not equally at risk? Why do we consider ourselves superior?

This age of intensification is a spiritual battle for the minds and hearts of the people of God. It is the time when all of us are on the frontlines of spiritual conflict. What did we think war would be like?

As Bob Dylan said, “When you gonna wake up?” There is a slow train coming and when it arrives the spiritual condition of each of us will be revealed in truth. There will be no more hiding, no more playing church, and no more self-justification. Those eyes which are “as a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14) will pierce to the depths of our souls and expose the life (or lack thereof) that resides within each of us. “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

One other area of intensification should be looked at briefly in this context. In Revelation 12:12 we are told that at some point in the near future Satan will be unleashing “great wrath” upon the earth “knowing that he has but a short time.” This coincides with our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 24:21-24 (and similar passages) that stress the exponential intensification of spiritual warfare and deception which will characterize the final generation. As the time of Satan’s judgment draws near, his anger increases, as does his assault on the Body of Christ. Our wrestling against principalities and powers will increase significantly as we come nearer to the close of this age.

“It is true that the true children of God are going through a time of intense trial and testing spiritually in these last days; everywhere it is so. Why? Because the Lord must have something against which hell is impotent and by which He demonstrates to the universe that strength of His might which causes to stand and withstand, having done all to stand. If one were asked what the last issue for the church in this age is, I would say that it stands, and that is saying a tremendous thing. Oh, you say, that is surely limiting things, are you not expecting much more than that? Progress,, advance, sweeping movements?

(The intensification of the conflict will be so overwhelming that) . . . “the church will have its work cut out in the end just to stand, but its standing will be its victory. Just to be able, through testing, trial, when everything is blowing round you like a blizzard; when everything is dark, mysterious, and even God seems far away and unreal, and faith is tested and you are being assailed on the right hand and on the left, and there is every reason outwardly for giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard. Just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory in the final generation.” T.A. Sparks

As our Lord Himself stated in Luke 18:8, “. . . when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” I am certain the Holy Spirit will be graciously using a number of God’s children to accomplish wondrous things in the world at the time of the end, but for many of us, holding on to our faith and standing firm in the midst of the most intense spiritual battle of all time, will be the great test, and the great victory for those who do stand.

The “perilous times” spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1 point to the rise of activities in the last days similar to that of Jannes and Jambres (verse 8). These were the magicians of Pharaoh who withstood Moses (Exodus 7:8-13). We need to notice the nature of their resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. What Moses did, they could do, so from an objective observer’s viewpoint, there was no significant difference. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they would work miracles to keep them in.

The most satanic resistance to God’s testimony in the world “in the last days” is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have “a form of godliness,” but not “the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). People like this can do the same things, adopt the same forms, use the same theology, phraseology and profess the same convictions as others. If the true Christian feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, teaches the Scriptures, witnesses to the lost, engages in prayer, sings worship songs, then the imitator will also do every one of these things. Again, this is the special character of the resistance offered to the truth “in the last days”. This is the spirit and work of 21st century “Jannes and Jambres.”

Only spiritual discernment can distinguish the imitation from the real. External observance alone cannot separate the two (Hebrews 5:14).

“The whole assembly stood there with the greatest reverence before this highest Majesty and most powerful Inspirer of awe, before which the greatest of souls becomes so little as to be almost nothing. And if we had not been witness to the movement of the body during this event, the raising of hands during the songs and prayers, and the expressions of humility – and if we had not heard the beating of the hearts before this immeasurable grandeur – we would have thought ourselves transferred to another life; to heaven. And, truly, we were at that hour in another world; the world of the Spirit. We were in the house of God, in God’s immediate Presence, and all with lowered heads and humble tongues and voices raised in prayer and praise, (were surrounded by) weeping eyes, awestruck hearts and pure thoughts of intercession.”

This recounting of a worship experience which occurred in the early 1900’s cites the spiritual impact on the attendees of the Islamic Ka’aba (original source unknown).

What if such an event was held in a Christian church (on, say, a Sunday morning) and instead of being saturated with the forms and words of Islam, was instead saturated with Christian forms and words? Would we know whether we were dealing with the Holy Spirit or with the spirit of Jannes and Jambres which Paul prophesied would come to the church in the last days? “. . . If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24b). But as we close in on the final apostasy of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:3), it seems that many in evangelical Christianity believe they are impervious to deception. The security of the born again believers in Christ does not prevent them from being “children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We may be evangelical, doctrinally orthodox and safe in Christ, but we are not immune to deception. There are too many warnings in the scriptures given to the church of Jesus Christ regarding the intensity and subtlety of the last day’s deception for us to consider ourselves invulnerable to being deceived.

The character of deception in the generation of antichrist is based on “signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The world operates in the realm of the sensual; the five senses coupled with logic, reason and instinct. These systems of perception are all that humans are capable of outside of Christ. But the Christian is a spiritual being and has the capacity (if developed) to see through the visible and sensual to the spiritual realities behind what is seen (note: 1 Corinthians 2:10-15; Hebrews 5:14). We are to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). There has never been a generation in the history of the church when this was more important than now. Unfortunately, we have become the generation of “walking by sight”; not the generation of “walking by faith”. The deception of the world and of the church will be based on that which is seen, so the church must be a company of people who are able to see through the surface and penetrate to the spiritual reality of all things. We must be able to give a spiritual interpretation to all that is around us.

I believe the church in America is being conditioned to walk by sight, by empiricism, not by faith. Our largest churches are not known for the kind of study and spiritual depth needed to develop deep and sustaining faith and spiritual discernment (Hebrews 5:11-14); they are characterized by that which appeals to sight (video clips, stage lights, celebrity-status preachers, energy-charged high volume music, etc.). We have come to believe that these things have spiritual content. If they were removed, the church would no longer be popular because spiritual life has been redefined from that which is based on faith and eternal spiritual reality (2 Corinthians 4:15), to that which is based on sight, feelings, and sensory presentation. We no longer have the capacity to walk by faith as the early church did. We need visual props and Hollywood style professionalism to persuade us that we are experiencing ‘awesome Christianity’.

I would be willing to simply relegate this development in American Christianity to the realm of immaturity where sincerely seeking believers have failed to move from milk to meat in their pursuit of spiritual sustenance. But it’s much more dangerous than simple childishness. It is a well-developed, demonic conditioning of the church to glide slowly into a state of apostasy, far removed from even understanding, let alone living, original intent. This is the work of the principalities and principalities we wrestle with in our generation. It is the psychological conditioning of the church in the final generation to replace the spiritual with the sensual; to believe that that which is outwardly impressive is true and of eternal value, and at the same time to disregard the seemingly irrelevant and boring nature of the spiritual instruction and protection we so desperately need (1 Corinthians 1:25-2:5). Again, we are being conditioned to walk by sight, not by faith; to be sensual rather than spiritually discerning people. When Christ returns, will He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8), or will He find that His people can no longer see the invisible (Colossians 3:1-4; compare Hebrews 11:27b)?

We go to church on Sunday morning and the worship band kicks into high gear playing the latest, repetitive pablum-based choruses followed by dim lights and an attention grabbing series of video clips. Then a guy in designer jeans and hanging shirt-tales takes center stage and preaches about things you’ve known since you were a week old in the faith. This isn’t Christianity New Testament style, it’s a Hollywood show – it’s American Christianity. But even more, it’s an experience, a religious subculture, designed by the enemy to move the church from a spiritual, faith-based foundation to a sensual, sight-based lifestyle. The popularity of this Sunday service paradigm and the fact of its near-exact reproduction throughout our country in all the really cool mega churches in our nation show how entrenched this “walk by sight” deception has become.

We now determine what is spiritual, what is awesome, by what we experience through our senses and our natural reasoning, not by what we experience in the spirit. We have little to no spiritual discernment to work with, so we use our eyes, minds, and emotions to determine what is good and true. This conditions the church to eventually succumb to a deception which moves us away from a mature walk of faith and manifestation of the indwelling Christ to an expression of religion and of things which are only impressive to the natural man. As this conditioning continues, our impact on the demonic world becomes minimal, which is the goal of the deception on their part – to neutralize the spiritual impact of the church on the powers of darkness and to lessen our impact on those seeking to find the Lord in us.

We are incredibly blessed to be living in the generation of our Lord’s return! But Satan also knows the time and that his time is running out. His wrath is intensifying and his attempts at deception are becoming much more dangerous, global and elusive. He has had 6000 years to study us and to learn what works and what does not work when it comes to neutralizing our spiritual vitality and discernment. We must pray and study with a determined seriousness if we are to overcome the intensification of deception in these last days.