QUIET INVASION

It happened on a Sunday morning.  Mom got us three kids ready for church and out the door we went. About two and a half hours later we returned home and began the routine of getting changed out of our church clothes (yes, that was a thing when I was ten years old) and then lunch. As my habit was, I went to grab my guitar, but couldn’t find it.  I remembered playing it just before we left. After a quick search the reality set in … my guitar had been stolen while we were at church. Some intruder had invaded our little home and stole my guitar! No!

I was just a boy, but I remember that moment so well.  At first everything seemed normal.  Our basement apartment didn’t seem disturbed.  If I wasn’t in a habit of playing guitar all the time we might’ve gone days, even weeks not knowing we’d been robbed.  The enemy waited for our absence.  He knew our habit and counted on the place being vacated.  Of course this isn’t rationale for never leaving home.  God says He blesses your going out, and your coming in.  It’s important to have true fellowship with other Believers.  That can be in your home, at a coffee shop, a church building, or in North Korea it might be secretly on a fishing boat.  This warning points to something far more sinister then having your material stuff stolen.  There’s a thief Jesus warns us about that has already launched an invasion into your nation, our communities, and it’s through our homes.  Communities don’t determine the strength of a home.  Our homes decide the strength of our communities.  This is why government can’t fix this, and you lose every time you believe the lie that they can.     

Thieves look for an opportunity.  Even the Bible talks about this pattern.  Jesus said in Matthew 24:43 “If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.”  Some government officials condone theft and fraud because they believe the criminal’s circumstances have predetermined his or her choices.  That reasoning is void of God’s morality, principal, and the law of reciprocity.  God warns us against the tactics of the enemy, who is a thief, a liar, and a killer.  1 Peter 5 “Be sober, be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  The invader is scouting.  Yes, the quiet invasion has already been going on right in front of us.

You can plainly see the invasion into our politics, education system, corporations, and even our faith centers.  Still there is a more lethal and dangerous target.  The enemy has covertly invaded homes.  We need to take the land back starting with our own address. 

Recently a young troubled adult murdered 3 children and 3 adults at a private school in Tennessee.  The media say the invasion occurred at the school.  If that were true you could stop it at the school, but as much as society tries, they can’t.  You can outlaw guns but outlaws don’t follow rules.  Invaders will use anything to kill, steal, and destroy.  The root of this destruction was in her home, in the privacy of her secret life.  She went to church.  She went to a Christian school, but the real invasion happened where she lived.  Her life was invaded with lies, and then she was recruited for evil nobody was alert to.

When did we stop needing God in our homes?  Are we so safe from a spiritual invasion of evil that we can defer our life of faith to a religious building?  We need God in our homes, and our families.  We got tricked into thinking God wants to live down the street or across town.  Without God’s warning or conviction within us, we watch what we want, talk how we feel, eat, drink, smoke what we want, and of course we can download any fantasy, perversion, or curiosity we desire without accountability.  Home delivery is for all that stuff, we say.  We’ve already been invaded.  Entire nations suffer because of the secret invasion of our homes.  Should we passively surrender the power of our real lives?  Does that Sunday morning veneer really work?

National polls for North America say attendance to religious places of worship have dropped largely in these last four years.  Of course it has!  Locked in their homes many people realized attendance to a religious building hasn’t changed or transformed their life at all.  The Bible never said it would.  Knowing the Truth sets you free, not going to a building.  Marriages that used to escape two or three times a month to a religious club realized when they had to stay home with each other, they’d been robbed.  The guitar that once played love songs had been stolen years ago and no one even noticed.  Attendance is a poor, weak substitute for alliance.  In war you need an ally.  The invasion is here.  You need The Ally … God, Who is our Refuge, Fortress, and Strong Deliverer.         

The Bible warns of very dangerous times called the last days.  People will become lovers of self, money, void of morality, haters of good, brutal, traitors, lovers of pleasure rather than being a lover of God.  The warning sharpens as we read on in 2 Timothy 3:5 “holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power.  Avoid such people and keep far away from them.”  People who rely on a form of Christianity but refuse to embrace God’s power in their life and home are dangerous.  They’re dangerous to themself, BUT they’re also dangerous to the community.  They’ve given themself over to the quiet invasion.  They’re like a sleeper agent.  O they may not murder like the tragedy in Tennessee, but they can spread the deadly, lying ferment of their doctrine as a teacher or youth leader.  I’ve seen this poison work it’s slow death right under the noses of parents, leaders, and pastors.  Dysphoria is in vogue today.       

Don’t surrender your home to the fear, turmoil, godless entertainment & the new moral standard.  It puts family, marriage, and every child at risk.  Stand up and fight the good fight of faith.  Run into the tower of God’s Name.  Make Him your trust & Refuge.  When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him and put him to flight.  We can reverse this quiet invasion but it starts in you, and in your home.  If you can’t live for Christ there, you’re not safe anywhere.  Acts 17:24 says God does not live in temples made with hands.  In Jesus Name stop the invasion!   

Pray the Word:

Lord we don’t want to deny Your great power in our lives.  Instead we receive all that You have done for us at the cross.  The weapons of our warfare are mighty through You.  Pulling down strongholds and casting down imaginations that exalt themselves against the true knowledge of Your will, Your goodness, and love.  The enemy is looking for lives to destroy and we say “no” to his demonic tactics and strategies.  No, to his subtle, quiet invasion!  We are alert in Jesus Name and able to defeat every lie that would poison our future.  Yes, to Your Truth that makes us free.  In Jesus’ Name “yes” to Your great love! 

P.S.  Get the daily prayers off our website at livingroomchurch.org or the app.  Living room church, get the purple square with the L, and it will work for you to encourage you.