Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: God is constantly reminding us through his word that, number one, there is a spiritual war. There is an invisible world that we cannot see. Number two, he wants us to know that just because we think it doesn't exist, or just because we pretend as though it doesn't exist, it doesn't mean that it's not real.

And the third thing that he wants us to know more than anything is that he has given us the tools necessary to engage in the world that we cannot see because it's our only hope. There's no way around it.

Singers: I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. 'Cause all I need is you. All I need is you.

Guest (Male): Whether you realize it or not, you are in the midst of a war that you cannot see. If you're a Christian and you refuse to engage in it, you will become the first casualty of it. Today on Light on the Hill, we'll talk about one of the most important things you need to know about this invisible war. Here's Pastor James Kaddis with his message, "Demons are Real and They're Gunning for You."

James Kaddis: Mark chapter 5, and I'm going to tell you, this is a great one. I want to start off by just simply reiterating something that I talk about on a regular basis. It is something that I oftentimes allude to and one that I think more and more God is reminding me of. And I think that this is because of the fact that I find myself in a position on a regular basis where it generally feels like I'm hitting a wall.

There's a part of me that oftentimes feels very weary. There's a part of me that oftentimes feels like I am very short in a way. I'm not talking about my size. I'm talking about the temperament that I have in moments. I feel like there are moments, especially in these recent years, where it just feels like you have something on your back and you really can't get it off.

I think that this is not anything that should surprise me. It shouldn't surprise you. This is something that we've been talking about for years and years and years where we've been saying that the time of spiritual warfare that we face from day to day is getting more intense and it's manifesting itself in ways that we never thought. I know that when we were younger, when my generation was at the kid age, we didn't have a lot of the things that distracted the kids of today from.

We didn't have just this completely radical amount of information available at their fingertips with no accountability and no real awareness of being able to discern what's true from what isn't. We were not in the midst of a diluted world that basically taught us to buy into like or identify with the thing that made us feel the best. We were in a completely different world.

I think that what's happened is so much of the things that we've seen this world morph into has been the result of what has gradually been, and actually that gradual movement has developed enough inertia now to become very rapid movement. That rapid movement has now become a literal downfall. We've gone from a place where people have been aware of an invisible world but not very conscientious of the fact that they did not want to engage in it.

I think that there's a lot of people, especially when you look as recent as 100 years ago, that were much more aware of the spiritual world than we are today. The thing that's really scary about the world in which we live today is that as the spiritual activity is at a heightened level, and I'm telling you this, I believe this, I think I can prove this, that the level of spiritual warfare that's going on today is higher than any other time in human history other than two other moments in human history.

Other than the time when Christ was crucified and resurrected and other than the time when Adam chose to rebel against God and Eve was deceived. I think those two times in history are the only other times that actually beat the time that we're in right now. The thing that I think is remarkable is that over the years, over thousands of years, as long as we've had access to God's word in one way or another, God prepared us for this.

God told us that these days would come. God made us aware of the fact that these things were going to happen. At least when you look at the time when I was a kid, it seemed as though every family went to church if not just simply for the social graces. If you lived in a world where so many people participated in some level of church activity or spiritual activity, they were always connected in one way or another to some level of consciousness about the invisible world, the world that cannot be seen.

Since we have taken on a very secular humanistic society, one that has blatantly walked away from so much of the principles that we look at and used to look at as honorable and traditional, now we're in a world where we just completely ignored it and we pretend as though it does not exist. Here's the part that's really scary. If you don't know the Lord and you're well on your way to hell because you have no hope for the sin that you continue to commit every day, then you not engaging in the spiritual warfare is ideal for you because the reality of it is the devil will not attack you.

He will leave you alone. He does not want you to become conscious of the invisible world that you continue to pretend does not exist. So long as you're not walking with God, so long as you don't have a relationship with God, the devil will continue to exploit you by doing everything that he can to make you continue to be unaware of the invisible world that's killing you every day.

But if you're a Christian, and let me make myself very clear before I even go on to this next statement, if you are somebody that doesn't know the Lord and the enemy is successful in causing you to realize that there is no invisible war to be looking at, nothing to see here, you will undoubtedly become a casualty of that war. You will. But you will be amongst one of the last casualties.

If you are a Christian and you are walking with the Lord, and you choose to not engage in the spiritual warfare that you know exists, you will be among the first casualties of it. You will be amongst the ones who get attacked in the most severe ways and in your attack, you will capitulate to bring yourself to a place of destruction.

God is constantly reminding us through his word that number one, there is a spiritual war. There is an invisible world that we cannot see. Number two, he wants us to know that just because we think it doesn't exist, or just because we pretend as though it doesn't exist, it doesn't mean that it's not real. And the third thing that he wants us to know more than anything is that he has given us the tools necessary to engage in the world that we cannot see because it's our only hope.

There's no way around it. I am scared at the idea or at the thought or by the fact that we have developed a world right now, especially in the West, that has learned to numb itself to the point that every single thing we used to identify as an abnormality even as recent as 10 years ago has become mainstream today. The problem with identifying an abnormality as a mainstream or accepted item today centers around the idea that your numbness to the truth continues to grow and in that, your awareness of what is really happening is diminished to the point where you walk into destruction.

The inevitability of your suffering will get to a point that we would deem as critical mass and there is no literal hope from recovery from the place that exists. I think it's really scary and I think it's one of those things that if you're not aware of those things within the context that it was designed to make you aware of, then you are going to end up putting yourself in a situation where you are going to suffer.

Let me make myself very, very clear here. This is important and I want to say it and I don't care if it scares anybody. I don't care if it bothers anybody. I don't care if I rub somebody the wrong way. I want to make myself clear. There is an invisible world out there whether or not you want to admit it. The devil is real. His demons are real and they are gunning for each and every single one of you.

Every single thing that you do with your time, every single time you choose to do something with your time that is not God-honoring or to do something with your time that is not going to be in a place that offers you the proper perspective as into the invisible world that you ignore, you allow yourself to get in a place of deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper distress. Eventually that will hit critical mass. When it hits critical mass, there will be no hope.

The reality of it is the spiritual world in which we live is easily discernable if you will allow yourself to be given to the truth of God's word. It's easily discernable if you will allow yourself to be given to an understanding and awareness of what is real. I heard an interview that inspired this line of thinking just a few days ago and it really bothered me.

In the interview, there was a discussion about the amount of people who have been appointed to office, who have been working now under the current Trump administration, who believe in God. The thought was how destructive it is to our country that a group of people in the most critical positions actually believe in the true and living God. People are very upset by the fact that they're having Bible studies in the Oval Office, that they're actually sitting in the cabinet room on a weekly basis and leading one another in praise and actually praying.

Don't get me wrong. There's some kooky people in there, but that's a whole different side of the story. They're very bothered by the fact that the Secretary of Defense goes out of his way to make sure he's giving some of the time that he chooses to make himself more aware of the word of God. He's spending a lot of time to become closer to the Lord than he ever has been before and they have a big problem with it.

The thought process is the more you give yourself to that type of stuff, the more aloof you are to the destructive forces that are out there that would seek to endanger our country and that would seek to endanger our world. I would argue that the more in tune to the Lord you are, the better you will be at developing a group of, shall I say this, this is going to sound really bad, developing a group of killers that will do exactly what they need to do to defend our nation in the right way.

Why? Because every conflict that we have ever ran into in the past and every conflict we'll ever run into in the future is predominantly centered around spiritual activity. Whether or not anybody wants to admit it, the more aware you become of the spiritual, the better you become in navigating through the physical. This is something that I cannot emphasize enough and this is something that I cannot tell anybody more than this is such a critical issue.

If you do not have an awareness of the things that you cannot see, you will be ineffective in the things that you can see. If you allow yourself to become aware in the things that you cannot see, you will be unaware of the things that you can. You will not be effective. You will have a very distinct and unique inability to be able to discern the world that is around you. This is something that we cannot let go of.

Again, as I said before, you have an enemy that hates you. You have an enemy that wants to destroy you. You have an enemy that wants to exploit you. You have an enemy who assigns demons to you to want to destroy your life. All of those things are real. Here's the part that is very difficult to explain to people. You can't see any of those things. In many ways, you oftentimes don't even be able to feel it.

The only way you can navigate through it is to walk in obedience to the Lord your God, to live the way that he's asked you to live because the only way you survive the tumult, the only way that you can get through the issues that will dramatically affect the things that are tangible to you is by minding the intangible, is by minding the invisible.

Jesus goes to the other side of the Galilee here. He goes to the area of the Gadarenes. He knows fully that the most difficult moment he would ever experience had nothing to do with the storm that he just came out of. He knows fully that what he is about to do is walk into a situation where he is going to expose his disciples to a level of darkness they have never seen. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are going to experience is going to be something that is going to shake them up in some pretty significant ways and is going to make them aware of something that perhaps they may have never been aware of before.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and on the weekends, we're going through the Gospel of Mark together. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James Kaddis's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. Listen to us wherever you get your podcasts too. When you have a moment today, send us an email. We'd love it.

It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives, and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at the website, lightonthehillradio.com. If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a secure donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you see current events through a biblical worldview. Look for those at jameskaddis.com. Now let's return to Mark chapter 5.

James Kaddis: The thing that's critical about the moment that we're going to read concerning today is if we will pay attention to the things that are being said, we can gain the same benefit that was made available to the disciples in that day. There is a lot to learn here. There is a lot of very important insight that you can gain from knowing and understanding the things that are happening.

Let's look at this, verse 1. It says this of chapter 5, verse 1: "And they came over to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes." By the way, I just want to make myself very, very clear. The tribe of Gad, and there's a lot to talk about here. We could get into some big history, especially when you start getting into Joshua, Judges, and actually earlier than Joshua when you start getting into the last declarations of Moses, which is Deuteronomy.

You can already begin to see a hint of this. Matter of fact, the earliest indicator of all of this is when Jacob is on his deathbed and he actually gives blessings and curses to all of his sons. But the one thing that you have to recognize here when you see that Jesus is going into the area of the Gadarenes, a couple things to know. Number one, this was an area that was considered to be of great disregard because the Gadarenes were people that did not obey the law of God.

And perhaps the reason why many of them were known to not obey the law of God was because they chose not to live within the parameters that God had set forth with them. In other words, God said this would be the land that they would conquer and that the land would be divided amongst the tribes. The Gadarenes were one that did not want to live there. They saw something to them that immediately or in the moment appeared to be convenient, easy, well taken, and so they chose to rest there.

The problem is when you stay away from the place that God wants you to be, number one, and you actually refuse to do the things that God wants you to do, you open yourself up to the greatest levels of attack that get to the point where the destructive results that come from that attack become the normal way of living. I think that that's a really important thing to think through. You've got to understand it.

One of the greatest examples of this is the stuff that we're seeing right now in the Middle East. It's a very sad truth but it's the reality. I'm not trying to put anybody down. I'm not trying to make anybody feel displaced in any way. But I remember in 1994, the very first time I walked into the city of Bethlehem. When I walked in that city, it was something special. I'm telling you. Anybody who said Bethlehem was not a beautiful city, I'm telling you right now, it was a beautiful city.

I remember walking through that city with my dad and literally every corner we went to, there were bakers that were selling bread that was better than anything you've ever had at any custom high-end bakery you could ever have. You could literally walk down the streets of Bethlehem and you could buy the food that they were selling off of these carts that look like cheap taco carts and it would be better than any food you would eat at any five-star restaurant.

Bethlehem smelled good. The air felt special. Everything about that city was absolutely beautiful. Bethlehem, by the way, happened to be at that time one of the highest populations of Christian Arabs in Israel. By the way, some of those families were remarkable. One of the greatest moments that I had of Bethlehem was walking into a store that had been owned by many generations of people before and talking to the patriarch of that family and watching him quote the Lord's prayer to me in Aramaic.

It was one of the most authentic, beautiful prayers that I had ever heard. It was the prayer that came out of the mouth of a man that knew he didn't have a lot of years to live and that him and his brothers were going to hand to their sons and their sons' sons the heritage of a promising future. In my opinion, it was one of my favorite cities to visit. To me, it was about as special as going to Jerusalem. It was a very, very sweet moment.

I remember going there a year later. Stepping out into the streets of Bethlehem, hearing gunshots in the background. The smells of sweet bread were replaced by what smelled like cat urine and burning trash. The place felt, literally felt, like demons moved in and settled into that city. Even the speech amongst the people that were in the streets. You would hear people say words praising the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Arabic. You would hear them singing praises to Yeshua, Jesus.

And within six short months of the time that the major change took place in Bethlehem, all of those praises, all of those singings were replaced with the mosque at the top saying things like "La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur rasulullah," calling people early in the morning for the prayers. Tape recorders, by the way. Cassette tapes. Funny thing that struck me about that moment and the thing that shocked me about it all was at the time, and many of you who know history and know that area, that is the time during that year, I was there in '94, less than six months later the Palestinian Liberation Organization, now known as the Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of an Egyptian man by the name of Yasser Arafat, took control or was given control of Bethlehem by Israel.

And it literally turned into a dump within six months. Why? Whether or not anybody wants to admit it, whether or not anybody wants to articulate it, whether or not anybody wants to recognize it, the influence and the effect of Islam destroyed that city. The Quran says it. The Quran says that Allah is the chief of deceivers. When you go and you worship a god that is not the true and living God, you can only expect the society and the world to be around you to just be destroyed.

You know something I learned in Morocco, the very first time I went there? By the way, that was the same year that I came back and saw Bethlehem in the condition that it was. The first time I went to Morocco, 1995. The reason why I went there, we smuggled Bibles into the country. I was the only Arabic speaker on the mission team that went there and one of the things that was just astounding to me about Morocco, it was shocking, was just the sheer number of demonic activity that I could see in that area.

Specifically in one of the towns, Fes, when we were there. It was shocking to me to see how much demonic activity was going on. I was talking to a young man that told me, he said, "In these Islamic weddings that we have here in Morocco, if there's not a manifestation of a demon in one of the members of the party, then the party is not considered to be blessed by Allah." That's the thinking. You could feel it. You could sense the presence of wickedness.

And you know what all these cities and all these countries and all these places have in common that are in the dumps? They all gave themselves to a side of the world that they cannot see that is deeply dark and demonic. And what Jesus does when he runs into this place is he runs into a place that is run by a group of people who have forsaken the true and living God and the effects of them forsaking the true and living God can be seen very clearly.

He goes on. It says: "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs..." The tombs, folks. The place where the dead lay. "...out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit." Demonic possessed man. Can you imagine? You get off the boat and the moment you get off the boat, demons are coming your way. It's an interesting thought.

Verse 3: "Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones."

Guest (Male): More from the book of Mark is coming up next weekend on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This program is listener-supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Singers: I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. 'Cause all I need is you. All I need is you.