CHAPTER 1
Enchantment Sleep in Sin Forest
Do you recall the story "Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving? Rip Van Winkle went to sleep before the American War of Independence and woke up twenty years later. A loyal subject of the British monarch, he went to sleep to escape his nagging wife. But when he woke up, he found that his wife had died, his friends were nowhere to be found, and the British monarch was no longer of any importance in his land. To Van Winkle, these dramatic changes seemed to have happened overnight. How does this story relate to the church today? The church, which is a people — not a building or a place — is sleeping in sin today.
Christianity was founded in the United States during the early colonial period by the Pilgrims, who brought it with them when they fled religious persecution in Europe. According to Wikipedia, there are nearly 280 million Christians, making Christianity the largest religion in the world. The author do not believe that Christianity should never be considered a religion, because Christianity is a God doing and religion is a man doing. According to an ABC News poll, 83 percent of Americans identify as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, profess no religion. If this is the case, why aren't Christians making a difference in the United States? Only fifty people were surveyed for this poll, so it probably isn't an accurate representation of the United States population.
Sleep can be defined as the state of an animal during hibernation, a state of torpid inactivity resembling sleep, or a trance or coma. The devil has put the church into a sleep-in-sin trance, and the church doesn't even know it. The church knows something is wrong, but it cannot escape this trance. Rip Van Winkle, who tried to escape reality by sleeping, found that the world had changed when he finally woke up. The story of Rip Van Winkle sounds much like the church today. Is the church trying to hide its head in the sand, hoping that the evil things happening around us will just go away? Our world is moving in a direction that we don't want it to go, but the church refuses to wake up from the sleep in sin. We are heading toward a collision like a runaway train. We see children shot in our schools and people gunned down in the streets because of the color of their skin. We see sexual immorality running rampant, human trafficking, and children sold into the sex trade, because of lust, greed and the heart of man. We see drug overdoses increasing because the flesh just cannot be satisfied, and our children are committing suicide.
So, you ask, how does this relate to Christianity? Good question. Christians are being lulled into an enchanted sleep in Sin Forest by satan without their consent or knowledge. The Bible tells us that God's people are perishing because of lack of knowledge. By this happening the following devastation has been introduced into the United States: One of the first signs was Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade came on the scene while we were under the sleep-in-sin trance of satan in 1973 where the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe, who was single and having sex outside of marriage and got pregnant. Now, who was the president at the time during the Roe v. Wade trial? A Republican named Richard Nixon. Roe admitted that she didn't want the baby. She wanted to abort her baby. She claimed that her life wasn't endangered. She didn't want the unborn baby. The baby was a human being at the time of conception. Here are some statistics from the outcome of Roe v. Wade. Ever since the Roe v. Wade ruling, more than 58 million unborn children have lost their lives in their mothers' wombs because of lack of knowledge. Jane Roe, who has since become a vocal, passionate leader in the pro-life movement, challenged abortion regulations and won the court decision. Ever since then, more than 48 million unborn children have ceased to exist in this world. In 2005 alone, there were 1.2 million abortions in the United States. One court decision, instigated by one person, changed the fate and face of generations who have never had the chance to cure cancer, create art and literature, discover energy-conserving innovations, or advance the population of a freedom-loving nation.
In its report titled Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2011, the Guttmacher Institute, originally founded as a research affiliate of Planned Parenthood, reported that for 2011, there were 1.05 million abortions in the United States — 550,000 fewer than the peak of 1.6 million in 1990. I believe that abortion numbers are declining because of the morning-after pill.
The total number of abortions, since Roe v. Wade in 1973, is 60,069,971. This is based on the numbers reported by the Guttmacher Institute (GI) 1973–2014, with projections of 926,190 for 2015–17. GI has estimated possible undercounts of 3 to 5 percent, so an additional 3 percent is factored into the overall total.
According to the National Pro-Life Alliance, abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States every year, with more than 1.6 million abortions performed on average per year. Those unborn children might have grown up to be doctors or scientists who found a cure for cancer or AIDS, or one of them could have easily became the president of the United States.
Abortions are a tragic within itself, partly because of the devastating remorse, guilt, and condemnation that follow. If you have been a victim of this tragedy, I don't condemn you. God is your judge, not me. The Bible tells us in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just [righteous] to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [our sins]." That is the kind of God we serve — a merciful God. I believe that if you have confessed your sins, God has forgiven you and those sins have been thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. Isaiah 43:25 says, "I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
As the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 2:17). God is long range, so He knew that we couldn't hold up our end of the bargain. That is why He sent His Son Jesus. It is up to you to walk in forgiveness, not in condemnation. I beseech you to allow your past sins and shame to be used as a stepping-stone to help others, rather than as a stumbling block. We do not have the power to go back and change the past, but our omnipotent God does. According to the Word of God, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12 ESV). It's difficult for us to forgive ourselves, because of guilt and condemnation. We don't know how to turn off that lying devil's voice in our minds. The devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus came to give us life — and life more abundantly. Jesus is not surprised by our sins.
We're supposed to help other people get out of their cocoons by telling them about Jesus and what He saved us from. A wise person will learn from someone else's testimony and then not make those same mistakes. Proverb 12:15 says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice." It is imperative for teenagers and adults to learn from other people's mistakes. Because you belong to Jesus, the life-giving Spirit has given you freedom from the sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1–2 says, "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." Jesus said that He came to save the world and not to condemn it. Remember that the law brought sin and death, but Jesus brings life. Can I get an amen?
Romans 8:3–4 says, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." God saw that sin keeps us separated from Him, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to condemn sin in the flesh once and for all:
So those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:5–11)
If you continue to not be awakened by the Holy Spirit, you will continue to be a puppet to the devil and your flesh, which will keep you stuck in the enchantment sleep in Sin Forest forever. So please walk in the Spirit, so that you won't continue to fulfill the lust of the flesh. If you continue to walk in the flesh, don't be surprised to see such things as your children misbehaving, divorce becoming more widespread, sexual immorality and perversion out of control, and addictions running rampant.
According to Merriam-Webster, Inc. dictionary on the Apple I-Tune App dated 2018, the verb enchant means to cast a spell over or bewitch someone or something. To be enchanted means to be enthralled, captivated, beguiled, engrossed, or hypnotized. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:1, "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." Although they had previously walked in the Spirit, the Galatians later allowed their flesh to be perfected and let the devil get a stronghold in their lives. Without even knowing it, they fell asleep under the devil's sleep-in-sin trance and became complacent about the things of this world.
Now the church has become bewitched. O foolish church, who has bewitched you? I hope the church knows that it is the devil who has bewitched it and made it complacent. It is the devil's good fortune for the church to remain in sin sleep. It's easy to go into the devil's enchanted forest and get trapped in sin sleep, like a bug caught in a Venus flytrap, especially if you are walking in the flesh. The flesh will take you back to places where you thought you would never return. In Galatians 1:3, Paul tells the churches of Galatia about the forest of enchantment, which is like eating the forbidden fruit. Once you have bitten into it, your flesh will crave for more and more, until it cannot get satisfied.
You know what your forbidden fruit is — your weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Once you have tasted the forbidden fruit and experienced that first high, you'll try again and again to re-create that feeling, just like a drug addict, but you can't reach that pinnacle again. That's why some people overdose on drugs because they are trying to mimic that ecstasy or sensation again and they cannot get that feeling again. Don't continue to be lulled into the devil's enchanted forest, because when he is finished with you, he will make your life miserable by trying to destroy everything important to you — your health, family, friends, job, finances, and the church you attend.
Pornography is another example of sleeping in sin in the enchanted forest after tasting the forbidden fruit. In the computer age, we have personal electronic devices that give us easy access to pornography. Once you look upon that forbidden fruit, however, you'll crave more and never be satisfied. I struggle with this forbidden fruit every day. That's why I have to walk in the Spirit so that I won't continue to fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh is weak, but the Spirit is strong. Similarly, once your lips have tasted the forbidden fruit of alcohol, it's difficult to stop. Sex outside of marriage is one of the worst forbidden fruits because it's like a wildfire out of control and you want more and more. You find yourself trapped, sleeping in sin in the enchanted forest with no way of escaping. The list goes on and on, including such sins as addictions to working and shopping. The Bible tells us to flee from these lustful things, which are like indulging our appetites at smorgasbords or buffets. They are intoxicating to our flesh and we cannot get enough.
God does not want you to stay trapped in the sleep in Sin Dungeon. Once you have tasted that the Lord is good, you don't want to stay in the forest of enchantment sleeping in sin any longer. God wants you to rise above those addictions, and He said that if you seek Him, you'll find Him. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." God doesn't want you to seek after fleshly things. Tell your crazy flesh to get back on that cross where it belongs, each and every day, because the flesh wants to remain in control. But your life is not your own, because you have been bought by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Isn't that good news?
Do you realize that the church has been sleeping for more than forty-five years, ever since the Roe v. Wade case? The church is still sleeping deeply in sin, because we have allowed prayer and the Word of God to be taken out of the schools. We have allowed religion to become the norm instead of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The church has taken its flesh off the cross and revitalized it again. We must tell our harebrained flesh to get back on that cross where it belongs. No flesh will dwell in God's presence. Jesus's flesh was nailed to a cross over two thousand years ago, so speaking the name of Jesus causes the enemy to flee. And the blood of Jesus, which was shed for you and me, is our road map to salvation and forgiveness of sin. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. (Read Hebrews 9:22.) No one can come to the Father except through Jesus, because Jesus is the only bridge to the Father. "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
In John 14:5, Jesus answers Thomas's question, but all the disciples are asking Jesus questions because they aren't sure where He's going. If you are in the enchantment sleep in Sin Forest, you will ask questions such as, "How can we know the way?" The enemy does not want you to know the way to the Father. He wants you to remain blind and ignorant. The enemy wants you to live in the enchantment of Sin Forest forever with him. If you remain in the enchanted forest, your flesh and the enemy will remain in control. You'll think that everything is okay, but it will be obvious that nothing is real. But if you experience the awakening and see the enemy for what he is — a cunning, slimy, little snake — then you will tell that old devil to get back under your feet where he belongs. Then you will see that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
You need to tell the devil to go to hell where he belongs and leave your family alone. Serpents can be word curses and generation curses, but Jesus has given us the authority to trample over them both and denounce them in His name. The devil has no authority over you except what you give him. Denounce word and generation curses simply by saying this:
Father, I am your child and I speak blessings over my life, my children, and my family. In Jesus's name, I break every generational and word curse that has been spoken over my life, my children, and my family. Father, you have given me dominion and authority on this earth, and I bind the devil's curses. The devil is the prince of lies, and I take authority over every lie that has been spoken over my life, my children, and my family. As of today, I silence the voice of the enemy in Jesus's name. Amen!
