Light of the World Today
Not every affliction carries the same source or the same instruction. Some come from the hand of God to shape you. Others come from doors you opened, knowingly or unknowingly, that gave darkness access to your life. Knowing the difference is not theology for the classroom. It is survival for real life.
"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
Hosea 4:6 is one of the most sobering verses in the entire Old Testament. God's people were not being destroyed by their enemies alone. Their own lack of knowledge was destroying them. Not ignorance of secular subjects. Ignorance of the spiritual realities that governed their well-being, their safety, and their covenant standing with God. Ignorance is not neutral in the spiritual realm. It creates vulnerabilities that darkness exploits with precision. The person who does not know what opens a door to affliction cannot close what they do not know they have opened. And Part 3 of this series addresses that specific and urgent pastoral reality.
The First Category: Affliction Permitted by God to Train, Mould and Shape You
We established in Parts 1 and 2 that God permits certain afflictions as instruments of formation. These are the afflictions that carry the fingerprint of divine purpose even when they feel like divine punishment. They are the afflictions that Joseph experienced in the pit and the prison. The afflictions Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4 as achieving an eternal glory disproportionate to their weight. The afflictions that James says produce endurance and maturity. The pruning of John 15 that the fruitful branch receives precisely because it is fruitful.
God-permitted affliction has several distinguishing characteristics. It tends to come after a season of genuine spiritual growth or on the threshold of a significant new level of calling. It produces fruit, often invisible to the person in the middle of it but visible in retrospect. It does not produce a sense of spiritual contamination or a loss of access to God in prayer. Quite the opposite. The person in God-permitted affliction often finds their prayer life intensifies and their hunger for God deepens through the very pressure that is pressing them. And it has the consistent quality of Romans 8:28 about it. All things working together. The pieces, however painful they are individually, have a coherence when viewed from a larger perspective.
"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."
Psalm 119:67,71 NIV
Psalm 119:71 in the NIV says it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. The psalmist is not being masochistic. He is being honest about the outcome of a process that was painful in the experiencing and purposeful in the producing. He went astray before the affliction. The affliction brought him back to the Word. The affliction was the instrument God used not to punish a wandering person but to restore them to the path their purpose required. That is God-permitted affliction. It points back toward God rather than away from him. It produces hunger for the Word rather than bitterness against it. And it ultimately releases something in the person that greater ease could never have produced.
The Second Category: Self-Inflicted Affliction Through Open Doors
This is the category that requires the most pastoral honesty and the most biblical precision. Because not every affliction is God-permitted training. Some afflictions have arrived in a person's life because a door was opened, sometimes deliberately, sometimes innocently, sometimes through the actions of others who had authority over them, that gave the kingdom of darkness legal access to their life. And the afflictions that follow those open doors are not the same as the afflictions God permits for formation. They require a completely different response. They require the door to be identified, named, and closed through the authority of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 6:7 in the NLT says you will always harvest what you plant. The principle of sowing and reaping operates in the spiritual realm just as reliably as it operates in the agricultural one. When a person plants seeds of connection with the kingdom of darkness, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the harvest that arrives is not from God. It is from the source of what was sown. And the afflictions that follow are not formation. They are consequences. They are the harvest of a spiritual sowing that requires not endurance but repentance and spiritual cleansing.
Common Doors That Open to Self-Inflicted Affliction
Deliberate or unknowing involvement with occult practices
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 in the NIV says Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. The list covers practices that are presented in many cultures as harmless, traditional, spiritual, or even beneficial. Visiting a fortune teller. Consulting a medium. Engaging in divination in any form. Using objects associated with occultic practice. These are not neutral activities that God regards as minor indiscretions. They are specific open doors that give the kingdom of darkness legal access to a person's life. And the afflictions that follow are not coincidences. They are consequences of a spiritual connection that was established through the engagement.
False religious systems and counterfeit spiritual altars
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 in the NIV says Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Not every spiritual organisation that uses the language of God, wears white robes, speaks of prayer,r or claims divine authority is serving the God of heaven. The Bible is explicit that counterfeits exist. Spiritual systems that appear holy but draw their power from sources other than the God of Scripture are real. They may heal certain things. They may produce certain manifestations that appear miraculous. But the source of what they access is not the Holy Spirit. And the person who submits to their authority, visits their altars, receives objects from them, or allows them to pray over them has opened a spiritual door that can produce sustained affliction in areas of their life that no natural explanation can fully account for.
"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."
Matthew 24:24 NKJV
Unknowing covenants through gifts, food and relationships
This is perhaps the most widely misunderstood category because it covers situations in which the person involved had no deliberate intention to connect with darkness at all. The gift that was given by someone who had dedicated it to a spiritual source before presenting it. The food that was used in a ritual context before being shared. The relationship in which the other party had made spiritual agreements that were extended to the person they were in covenant with through marriage, close friendship, or even business partnership. The blood covenant entered into in childhood or on behalf of children through cultural practices without the full understanding of the spiritual implications. Numbers 30:2 in the NIV says When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said. The spiritual realm recognises covenants and agreements whether or not the person who made them understood what they were entering. And the good news is that the authority of Jesus Christ is sufficient to break every one of them.
The biblical example: Achan and the devoted things
Joshua 7 records one of the clearest Old Testament examples of how an object connected to the kingdom of darkness brings affliction to those who carry it unknowingly or wilfully. God had instructed Israel to devote everything in Jericho to destruction. Nothing was to be taken. Achan saw a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold and took them and hid them in his tent. He said in verse 21 that he coveted them and took them. The result was catastrophic. Israel was defeated at Ai in their next battle. Thirty-six men died. The entire nation suffered the consequence of one person's connection to devoted things. Achan's family suffered. The camp was affected. When Joshua prayed and sought God about the defeat, God said Israel had sinned. They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things. Joshua 7:11 NIV. The possession of the object opened a door that affected far beyond the individual. When the object was removed, and the sin was dealt with, Israel went on to win their next battle decisively. The principle is consistent, and it is precise. Objects, covenants, and connections to the kingdom of darkness produce real affliction. And their removal through the authority of Christ produces real freedom.
So the Light of the World word for today is this. Not every affliction is God forming you. Some afflictions are the consequence of doors that have been opened, knowingly or unknowingly, to the kingdom of darkness. And the God who destroys the works of the devil has given you everything you need to close every door and walk in complete freedom. Tomorrow's devotion will show you exactly how. Do not miss it.
Memory verse for today
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
Hosea 4:6 NKJV