Introduction
The peace of the Lord be with you and with your household. We give thanks to the Lord for the opportunity to stand before His presence, to expose ourselves to His word and to the power of His Holy Spirit, with the single purpose of doing and establishing the will of God.
What does the life of faith consist of? It consists precisely in this: that man and woman may do and establish the will of the Lord. This teaching appears as early as the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden with a single purpose — to do and establish the will of God. The Garden of Eden no longer exists for us; neither Adam nor Eve are there, and none of us ever will be. But the purpose has not changed. The purpose of man and woman continues to be to do and establish the will of God, and this is possible only by His grace and by His mercy.
The Reality of the Kingdom of Darkness
In last week’s teaching we established a doctrinal point of great importance for being able to do and establish the will of God: we cannot remain unaware of the reality of the kingdom of darkness. Although to some this may seem incongruous, it is necessary to understand that we cannot do or establish the will of God if we do not recognize that there is a reality of darkness that we need to know, for the purpose of setting it aside, of not walking in it, and not even looking at it or contemplating it.
Eve, according to the third chapter of the book of Genesis, did not understand that the serpent had come hired on behalf of Satan. Had she understood this, she would not have allowed the serpent to draw near. The chapter begins by saying:
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Genesis 3:1, NKJV).
Eve did not know that the serpent had been hired by Satan. Had she known and understood this reality from the beginning, she would not have permitted it, and Adam would not have fallen either. This is why the theme we established last week is of vital importance for every man and every woman of faith: to know it and understand it as a starting point. If we do not identify the enemy, the enemy will gain closeness, and we will not be able to reject him or fight him.
Let us recall the moment when Joshua, in the days before the conquest of Jericho, encountered a man with a drawn sword, and asked him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” That is precisely the purpose of knowing the reality of the kingdom of darkness: being able to identify who comes on behalf of the enemy, in order to put them under the soles of the feet of Christ Jesus. No one who does not admit the reality of the kingdom of darkness will be able to confront it, because he himself is invalidating it, and therefore he will not be victorious on the day of confrontation.
In this teaching we want to continue with that same theme, but on this occasion we will study the causes that allow the kingdom of darkness to have closeness with a man or a woman of faith. The kingdom of darkness is not supposed to have closeness with believers; if it does, it is because there are reasons, because there are causes. We will study three causes clearly defined in the Holy Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments. They are not the only ones, but they are the fundamental ones, and every man and woman of faith must learn to work on them in order to develop authority and establish the will of God above all things.
First Cause: The Adamic Inheritance
We find the first cause in the apostle’s first epistle to the Corinthians:
“As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Corinthians 15:48-49, NKJV).
This first cause that allows the kingdom of darkness to have closeness with man and woman of faith is the image of Adam, that is, the Adamic nature.
In his letter to the Romans, the apostle establishes by the Spirit of God:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, NKJV).
This statement that “all have sinned” tends to generate confusion: what type of sin is being referred to? It is not referring only to the sins we commit constantly, continually, and daily because of our deviation or our own condition, but to the Adamic nature that all of us have received through Adam and Eve. The Adamic inheritance has reached all of us: not only those who lived before, nor only those who live today, but also all those who will eventually be born.
We also read in Romans:
“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23, NKJV).
Although none of us was physically present in the Garden of Eden, we were all represented in Adam and in Eve. Therefore, their act of disobedience is the very same act of disobedience that each one of us has received by inheritance. This is the first cause that gives the kingdom of darkness a right to draw near to a man or a woman of faith: the Adamic inheritance.
The apostle defines this Adamic inheritance in three different ways throughout his writings. In 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 he calls it “the image of the man of dust,” that is, the image of Adam and Eve. In his letter to the Ephesians he defines it with another term:
“If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Ephesians 4:21-22, NKJV).
Here the apostle calls this inheritance “the old man,” and adds that it grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, referring precisely to the act of disobedience in which both Adam and Eve fell. Further on in the same passage we are exhorted:
“And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24, NKJV).
There is a third definition, found in the letter to the Romans:
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. […] I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:15,21, NKJV).
We have, then, three definitions the apostle uses to refer to this Adamic inheritance: “the image of the man of dust,” “the old man,” and “evil is present with me.” With this we can understand something of great importance: the only way for man and woman of faith to be freed from the closeness of the kingdom of darkness is by putting to death the works of the flesh, by crucifying the old man, and by casting off the image of the man of dust. This is precisely what the apostle Paul teaches in practically all of his writings about how to be freed from the works of the flesh. As long as man and woman of faith are not freed from them, it will be practically impossible to prevent the kingdom of darkness from drawing near to their lives.
One might ask: if the Adamic inheritance is what gives the kingdom of darkness a right to draw near, what exactly is that right? We find the answer in the letter to the Romans:
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey?” (Romans 6:16, NKJV).
The day Adam and Eve obeyed the voice of the serpent, which is nothing other than the voice of Satan, they became servants of the kingdom of darkness. That day, Adam and Eve, and all their generation — among whom are you and I — became servants of the kingdom of darkness. There is the right: the Adamic inheritance that all of us have received, being descendants of Adam and Eve, has transmitted to every man and every woman who is born a title of servitude that comes integrated genetically and spiritually into the very person.
It is not, as many pretend, simply a matter of saying, “I don’t believe in those things,” with the intention of being exempt from the influence of the kingdom of darkness. The fact that we do not believe, or that we do not want to admit it, does not mean that the kingdom of darkness has disappeared. We must work precisely within the same limits in which it was established from its origin: man and woman, Adam and Eve, became the servitude of Satan.
The apostle continues developing this theme in Ephesians, offering concrete instructions that we often overlook or read too quickly, without noticing that there lies the authority that the word gives us to break free from the kingdom of darkness:
“Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. […] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice” (Ephesians 4:25-31, NKJV).
The Adamic inheritance is what gives the kingdom of darkness the right, the permission, and the authorization to draw near and to establish itself within the limits and surroundings of a man and a woman of faith. It is not enough to say “I don’t believe in those things,” nor to repeat “I rebuke it in the blood of Christ,” because many times, by acting that way without understanding what we are doing, we are giving the kingdom of darkness even more right to keep operating.
It is worked out to the degree that each one of us, men and women of faith, understand that what is giving the enemy the right is the Adamic inheritance that we all possess, and those details we often overlook — the lie that has become established in our surroundings and that we have tolerated even socially, the resentment we hold for days, weeks, or years, the corrupt word, the bitterness, the wrath — are precisely what open the door for the enemy to establish himself in the life of a man or a woman of faith.
Nor is it a matter of repeating out of habit phrases that have become religiously popular, such as “the blood of Christ,” if the old man continues walking behind them. The Lord has His provision, but He has established a protocol that we must follow; He will not shelter someone who invokes the blood of Christ while continuing to feed the lie, pride, vanity, and deceit. No one can be freed from the kingdom of darkness merely by saying phrases that have become religiously popular, if the old man continues walking behind them.
This, then, is the first reason why the kingdom of darkness can draw near to a righteous man or woman: because they have not put off the Adamic inheritance, and they continue to live, even while confessing Christ Jesus, in the practices, the idioms, and the popular expressions that are not grounded in the word of God, in the culture, and in the rhythms that society itself has established. This cannot be, because the gospel was already designed by the kingdom of heaven; we did not build it, nor can we alter it or temper it to our own judgment. To do so is to deceive ourselves and to hand ourselves over even more to the kingdom of darkness.
Second Cause: Deliberate Ignorance of the Word of God
We find the second cause in both the Old and New Testaments. In the book of the prophet Isaiah we read:
“Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst” (Isaiah 5:13, NKJV).
And in the book of the prophet Hosea:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:6, NKJV).
This second cause by which the kingdom of darkness has closeness with the life of a man or a woman of faith is deliberate ignorance of the work of God. We speak of “deliberate” because it is not that we cannot know, but that we do not want to know. We could also define it as naivety of the word of God, or even lack of revelation: a total and complete lack of knowledge.
In our cultures and societies, everyone, without exception, has some reference to God and to Jesus, but not everyone knows Him. Practically one hundred percent have knowledge of God and of Jesus in terms of reference: we have all heard of Him, many even recall having attended a church in their childhood or having sung some chorus. But having a reference is not the same as knowing God or knowing Jesus. To know Jesus means to have intimacy with Him, to know His will, and to want to walk in it. The psalmist puts it this way:
“The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant” (Psalm 25:14, NKJV).
Many people today walk in a deliberate ignorance of the word of God, of His work, and of His will. We walk in ignorance not because we lack sources, but because we do not want to know them; we walk in ignorance, not because we lack resources, but because we prefer to remain in a deliberate naivety. Even people who are part of a congregation, who hear messages and sermons, do not know God, because they do not read His word. This is one of the failures that are multiplying today among those who confess Jesus: the lack of knowledge and the ignorance of the word are multiplying.
Jesus Himself warned, speaking of His second coming:
“…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8, NKJV).
It is important to understand what faith really means. Faith is not merely believing in God, which is the definition most of us give it. The epistle of James makes this clear: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” (James 2:19). This does not mean that, by believing in God, they will receive forgiveness in the end; faith does not consist in believing in God, but in believing God. There is a substantial difference. But how are we going to believe God if we do not know His word? How are we going to grow in faith if we do not know it? It is impossible. Mere attendance at a church does not generate faith, because the word of God is clear:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17, NKJV).
And when it speaks of “hearing the word of God,” it does not mean hearing a message or a sermon, but attending to the word itself. In the book of Acts we find a text that helps us understand the value of searching the Holy Scriptures, something that grants spiritual dignity to a person:
“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NKJV).
Those in Thessalonica also received the word with great readiness, but the Bereans distinguished themselves because, in addition to receiving it, they searched it out on their own initiative. This, then, is the second reason why the kingdom of darkness has a right to draw near to men and women of faith: because they deliberately chose to walk in ignorance, in naivety, saying, “This is enough for me; I don’t want to know more.”
When we come to the accounts of Satan’s temptations of Jesus, we notice that the enemy uses the same argument from the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3. This is precisely why the apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, calls Jesus “the second Adam”: what the first sold and gave away through disobedience, Jesus, in obedience, reclaims for His Father and for all who walk in obedience with the Lord. The enemy draws near with the same argument: “If You are the Son of God…” And in the three temptations described, Satan was rebuked in the same way: with the word, with “it is written.” The only way for the righteous man and woman to break free, that is, to separate themselves and prevent the kingdom of darkness from drawing near, is to know the word. It is the only way.
We also read in the book of the prophet Isaiah:
“The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider” (Isaiah 1:3, NKJV).
And in the book of the prophet Jeremiah:
“Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD” (Jeremiah 8:7, NKJV).
Although these texts speak of a particular people, they describe the way of acting of all peoples, of all men, in every age. That man and that woman, despite confessing Jesus, decided to walk in ignorance and in deliberate naivety, and settled for mere references. One of the greatest ironies of our times, prophesied in the opening chapters of the book of Isaiah, is that many ministries that claim titles, even that of apostle, have only references to Jesus, but do not know His word. The Lord, through the prophet, denounces that many call evil good and good evil, and that those who lead the people are like “youths,” that is, people without knowledge, experience, or maturity, who have nevertheless made themselves guides.
Jesus, explaining the parable of the sower — which represents what the kingdom of God on earth consists of — taught:
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside” (Matthew 13:19, NKJV).
The enemy snatches away what was sown in the heart, and this is precisely the work of the kingdom of darkness in our time. It might seem like a contradiction that the kingdom of darkness would draw near to a man or a woman of faith, but it is not, because, in the first place, there is the Adamic inheritance, and in the second place, there is the decision to walk in naivety and in ignorance of the word. Bibles are disappearing from the homes of those who confess to be children of God, and it is not enough to say, “I have it on my phone, I have twenty-three versions,” because what is lacking is not access to the text, but the practice of searching the Scriptures.
Third Cause: The Spiritual-Genetic Past Before Coming to Christ Jesus
We find the third cause in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:7-8, NKJV).
This third reason has a fundamental value that we need to know, and it has to do with the spiritual-genetic past of the person before coming to Christ Jesus. One of the most popular phrases within the Christian people is: “I did that before coming to Christ Jesus,” “I did that before accepting Christ Jesus,” implying that it does not count, that it does not matter, and that only what was done from the moment of conversion counts. But the word is clear: whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. It does not say “when you have come to Christ Jesus”; it says that everything we have done and every practice we have developed will have an effect on the life of the man and the woman for as long as they exist on the face of the earth.
We need to correct the way we understand this: although we may have done it before, it can affect us today, precisely because we sowed it. Another popular expression is: “But the Lord already forgave me for that; He has already cast it into the depths of the sea.” And this is true: God forgives, and He will remember our past no more, as is established in the word. We are not denying that truth. What we have not understood is that from all of that we must be set free. As long as we have not been delivered from it, all of it will still reach us today.
If we examine the Scriptures, we will notice that the miracles, the wonders, and the healings that Jesus performed, He performed precisely in men and women of faith, in godly men and godly women who were sick or bound. Let us recall the woman who had spent eighteen years bent over, whom Jesus called “this daughter of Abraham” and healed on the Sabbath day, to the scandal of the religious leaders of that time. If the children of Abraham are the children of faith, how is it possible that a daughter of the faith had been bound by Satan for eighteen years? We can review many other cases of godly men and women who were bound, even though the Lord had already forgiven their sins, because, as long as there was no deliverance, all of it still reached them.
Let us also think of Zacchaeus, of whom Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9), implying that before this he had been bound. Or of Lazarus, raised from the dead, but still bound, whom Jesus commanded: “Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:44). That is the condition of many men and women of faith today: bound by sicknesses, by mental disorders, by panic attacks, by phobias, by fears. Let us also remember Adam, who, after disobeying, hid in fear upon hearing the voice of God, when hearing His voice should have been cause for delight and joy. Where there is fear, God is not present.
Many men and women of faith no longer behave as they behaved before, but what they sowed in their vices and practices continues to reach them as long as they have not been set free. The apostle Paul lists the works of the flesh:
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21, NKJV).
One can be inside a congregation, confessing the name of Jesus, but if one has not been set free, the kingdom of darkness still holds its government over that person. How many men and women have handed over the government of their marriage, of their finances, of their entire life, of all their actions? Let us pause for a moment on adultery and fornication, for they have to do with sexual relations. Spiritually, sexual union is what constitutes marriage; physically, the law defines marriage as a contract between a man and a woman, but spiritually marriage is grounded in sexual union. The apostle Paul explains it this way in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”” (1 Corinthians 6:16, NKJV).
This is the very expression God used when He established marriage, and through the apostle He teaches us that, when a man unites sexually with a woman, a bond as spiritually strong as that of marriage is established. Many men and women have had more than one sexual relationship, and spiritually they may still be joined and bonded to those people. Even though they now confess the name of Jesus, all those unions keep them bound, and the one who governs those bonds is the kingdom of darkness.
This is the third cause: the spiritual-genetic past that the person developed before coming to Christ Jesus. Many have not dealt with it; they simply forgot it, saying, “I did that before coming to Christ Jesus,” and that is precisely what keeps many men and women bound today. Those who had access to witchcraft, sorcery, spiritist centers, santería centers, palm reading, or card reading should know that all of that keeps them bound to this day, because whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. It is only when we go through deliverance that all those aspects of the spiritual-genetic inheritance we developed before coming to Christ Jesus can be broken.
This is why it is necessary for man and woman to repent before the presence of God, because as long as there is no repentance, as long as we do not clearly see what we did and understand that all of it was an abomination before the Lord, we will not be able to walk in holiness or in the fear of God. In the Gospel of Luke we read:
“To grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74-75, NKJV).
Notice the order of this passage, because it is of great importance: holiness comes as a result of deliverance. This is why there are many men and women who cannot walk in holiness; they may subject themselves to rules and commandments, but when those rules and commandments are no longer present, and when no one is watching, the old man they used to be will come out again, because they have not gone through deliverance.
The Need for Deliverance
We have studied three fundamental reasons why the kingdom of darkness can draw near in the life and jurisdiction of a man or a woman of faith. The first is the Adamic inheritance we all carry, which is not resolved simply by saying “I don’t believe.” This inheritance has an aspect in personality, an aspect in character, and a physical aspect, but it also has a spiritual aspect, because sin is spiritual and has a spiritual manifestation. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1, NKJV).
But this inheritance also has an angelic-spiritual aspect, because there were other beings present the day Adam and Eve disobeyed before the presence of the Lord: beings who did not keep their dignity before God, but who offered themselves to provoke man’s disobedience. That Adamic inheritance must be removed, and all of us must know how it manifests itself.
The second reason is that we have deliberately chosen to walk in ignorance, in naivety; not because we lack sources, nor because God does not want to give us revelation, but because we chose to reject His revelation. Sadly, many today walk only by reference, and all they have are references to God and to Jesus, not a true knowledge of His word.
The third reason is the spiritual-genetic past of each person before coming to Christ Jesus. And all of this is resolved only when we submit ourselves to deliverance; otherwise there is no other way. It is important to clarify that this is not self-deliverance, as many understand it, in which one confesses one’s own sins to oneself, forgives oneself, and shepherds oneself. The Bible does not speak of that; the Bible speaks of our submitting ourselves to deliverance.
Now that we have this knowledge, we also have judgment upon us, because knowledge opens up understanding for us, and if we do not act on it, judgment falls upon our lives. There is a reality of the kingdom of darkness, and that reality will not disappear simply because we say “I don’t believe in those things.” Within that reality, the kingdom of darkness has a right over men and women of faith, and we have studied, according to the three causes presented, how to be set free from it.
Conclusion
The question that remains, then, is a personal, individual, and non-transferable question: what am I going to do now? The decision each one makes will determine their growth or their stagnation before the one true God, the Creator of heaven and earth. To Him, and to Him alone, be honor and glory. Amen.
Review Questions
1. Why is it necessary to recognize the reality of the kingdom of darkness in order to do and establish the will of God, according to the teaching of this chapter?
2. Explain in your own words what the Adamic inheritance consists of and why it gives the kingdom of darkness a “right” to draw near to the man and the woman of faith.
3. What is the difference between “believing in God” and “believing God”? How does this difference relate to the second cause studied, deliberate ignorance of the word?
4. Why is it not enough to say, “I did that before coming to Christ Jesus,” to be free from the consequences of the spiritual-genetic past? What role does deliverance play in this process?
5. According to the chapter, why is holiness the result of deliverance, and not the other way around? What implications does this have for your own life of faith?
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