Coincidence or Spiritual Warfare?

Let me start by saying that one of my goals is not to be seen as some sort of kook when it comes to my spirituality. I know that's shallow, but I can't help myself. I just don't want to be lumped in with that group of "preachers" who appear on TV with poofed-up hair, sensationalizing their experiences so people desperate for meaning will send them their hard-earned money. While I'm not here to talk about them, I am just insecure enough about what I do to feel the need to distance myself from being associated with a group that finds a demon under every rock they trip over. Some are quicker than Flip Wilson to say that the devil made them do it, but that's not me. Right or wrong, I align myself with the personal responsibility camp, a group of committed egotists that gravitate toward accepting blame for the bad and credit for the good.

The reality is that I don't know if I'm right or wrong. I can't really discern if my reluctance to recognize or acknowledge the spiritual interpretation of events is the by-product of cultural materialism, image management, immaturity in my faith or even maturity in my walk with God. So I see what I see and say what I say in hopes that God will do what he says -- demonstrate his strength through my weakness.

The reason it is so difficult to be right in our interpretation of events is because there are always four causal possibilities. First, the laws of sowing and reaping demonstrate that some of the fruit we reap, whether rotten or ripe, comes from the trees that we planted. Second, life happens. Jesus said that good people and bad people will experience rain and sunshine. Third, the Bible teaches us that we experience testing and discipline from God that may not be pleasant at the time but is designed to make us more like Jesus. Fourth, Paul writes in Ephesians that the schemes of the devil are real. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

We can't know for sure why stuff happens and therefore I don't think it's critical to nail down an explanation in every case. However, the events of this past Sunday compelled me to try and figure it out.

For those of you who were not at Skycrest on Sunday, let me explain. Each year we have a celebration of the GLOCAL mission outreach of our church. We hear about local and global ministries we support and, at the conclusion of the week of festivities, we invite people to join the work by pledging money for the upcoming year. The end result is that on this particular Sunday we typically raise about $30,000, or just under a third of our total mission investment for the year.

To wrap up our celebration this past Sunday, I had the privilege of interviewing a couple who have been called to the mission field to serve an unreached people group that number in excess of 13 million. Their story remarkably presents the transformative power of the gospel because they are serving people who are religiously aligned with a group of zealots that took the life of this man's brother. As you might imagine, God was moving powerfully as they shared their story.

At the conclusion of the experience, it was my responsibility to remind the followers in the room that Jesus reached us so we could reach others. We examined the passage of scripture in Romans 10 where Paul writes,"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"

The logic is clear and the truth powerful: All people can be saved by Jesus if they call to him in faith. However, they can't call to him if they don't know about him. They can't know about him if they aren't told. They can't be told if believers don't go to them. Believers can't go to them if they aren't sent.

We were moving toward the glorious truth that God invites us to significance and global impact by allowing us to pool our resources and fill the role of senders. But we never got there. Just as I was about to lead people to consider God's call for them as senders, just before we were going to take up the offering for the missions that we support around the world ... the fire alarm went off. No kidding! The fire alarm went off and the entire campus had to be evacuated.

We didn't get to finish sharing the gospel. We didn't get to finish explaining the opportunity that we have to join God in the work. We didn't get to give people the privilege of investing their resources in God's kingdom.

Was that coincidence or spiritual warfare? Did the fire alarm just happen to malfunction two minutes before we sacrificially committed to God's agenda? Or did we experience some physical manifestation of the spiritual reality the scripture reveals?

Obviously we can't know for sure (remember the four causal possibilities?). What we do know is that our alarm system identifies the location of any disturbance that triggers an alarm and there was nothing out of the ordinary to set it off. The sensor that tripped was in a locked janitorial closet void of strange odors or machinery that could have mechanically malfunctioned.

Did we experience spiritual warfare? Image management aside, I honestly think we did. But in the end it really doesn't matter. What matters is how we respond. What matters is that we recognize the critical nature of what God has called us to do and the commitment of our foe to generate distraction. We have to understand and prepare for the fact that when we are working to glorify God and advance His kingdom we will attract the attention of our enemy whose M.O. is to "steal, kill, and destroy."

And most importantly we have to remember that we are a part of the winning team. We will overcome because we are more than conquerors through God who gives us strength.