A Spiritual Hijacking
Chris Adsit, Associate National Director of Discipleship, Military Ministry

You have a ministry. You may not realize it yet, but you have a ministry. You were born with natural talents; upon salvation you received spiritual gifts; and along the way, you have acquired specific skills. The mixture of those three assets will give rise to the unique ministry for which God has wired you.

But there is a problem--three in fact. There is a hellish conspiracy of three foes who work tirelessly to keep you from discovering and conducting your ministry: the world, the flesh and the devil. The three of them stay up late each night, thinking of new ways to hobble you, cow you into submission, and keep you quiet. To the degree they are successful, to that degree your ministry will not happen.

How can we best fight back? There is a lot of confusion about what would be the most helpful strategy. Which of the three is hurting me the most? Which should I go after first? Can I take on all three at once?

Think of it in terms of a car race. You're at Le Mans just before the start. The race course is the world. Your suped-up, turbo-charged Lotus is your flesh. And just as you're about to get behind the wheel, Satan elbows you aside, straps himself in, and roars off in your car!

And man, can that demon drive! He knows the track backwards and forwards--every bump and the tiniest curve. He knows the Lotus, too--each nut, bolt and wire. And it may sound funny, but it seems like the car likes him at the wheel better than it likes you! The combination of that car and that driver on that track is unbeatable. What are we going to do?

If we could alter the race track, that might do some good. But the devil owns the track. Getting through all his red tape might prove to be a long and daunting task. Perhaps we could disable the car. Two problems with that: (1) as quickly as we disable it, he'll think of five ways to fix it, and (2) it's your car! Cripple the car and you're out of the race too!

Our only hope is to separate the driver from the car. If we can get him out of the driver's seat, the Holy Spirit and I can hop back in and drive that car like we want it driven. That undertaking must be our focus.

We need to use the power we have been given by God to yank Satan out of our car. Two summers ago, Dr. Tony Evans, a board member of Dallas Seminary, instructed the Campus Crusade for Christ staff about the power we believers have. He said there are two dominant Greek words for "power" in the Bible. Dunamis means "might, power, strength". It's where we get the words dynamite and dynamo from. But that's not the kind of power we have. Christians have been given exousia by Jesus Christ. This word also means "might, power, strength," but it has the added facet of "authority, or power in legitimate hands." It's like a criminal having a gun and a policeman having a gun. Both have power, but only one has the badge.

When you watch a football game, you see a number of men out there on the field with a considerable amount of dunamis. They pump iron, take supplements, eat raw meat and are usually genetically predisposed to having lots of dunamis. But as big and fast and powerful as those men are, down there on the field they do not have "all-power". Omnipotence belongs to those little guys with the striped shirts and the whistles! As Dr. Evans said, "Those players have enough dunamis to put you down, but the refs have enough exousia to put you out!"

When it comes to our lives--our walks with God and our ministries--we have exousia over the devil. Obviously, he doesn't want us targeting him (or his representatives) as the driver of the hijacked Lotus. He would prefer that we expend our energy trying to disable the car or alter the track. Instead, as he attempts to neutralize your ministry or defeat you personally, remember: you have the whistle! Use the authority you have been given and disqualify the devil. James 4:7,8 promises that if you resist him, he will flee!