A Devil Spirit of APATHY

Most people do not realize that Satan has an arsenal of devil spirits. Even in my research materials and my Bible dictionary and my large concordance, there is not one word said about apathy.

Giving God the glory and all the glory, I believe He has put this subject on my heart to teach to you about something that you may not even be aware of. How many times have you heard? “I don’t care.” It is this type of attitude that destroys the relationship that man can have with one another, in many situations. Let me show you from God’s Word why people are subject to this influence which is destructive, in most, if not all situations.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3: 2

The word affection means your thinking. Simply, it is what you think about most of the time. God says not to think on things of this present world, but to think on things above, which means to think about spiritual matters. Now how many people do you know that think about spiritual matters, but instead they think about earthly and material things. Then you wonder why this emotion called apathy dominates their thinking. Without God’s Word, you have nothing. There is nowhere to go and there is no future. But when we think on spiritual matters, we can be blessed and be filled with joy. I am simply trying to show you that the old devil can only get to you if you open a door. If you are thinking on spiritual matters that pertain to the true God, the devil cannot touch you. He cannot influence your thinking.

This particular teaching is one that I never heard taught before, so the time is just right for you to absorb what I’m about to teach you. I found it to be exciting even as I spoke to my wife about all of the classes we’ve had and all of the research we’ve done. And yet there was not one bit of information that mentioned the subject of apathy. Let’s look at another Scripture that tells us what to think on and what to speak about.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. -- Philippians 4: 8

Most people acquire this “I don’t care” attitude because they’re disgusted with almost everything. So they give up and quit trying to improve their lives. This influence is from the god of this world and is most devilish. As I said time and time again, the secret to the devil’s success is the secrecy of his moves. People do not know that this apathetic feeling comes from the wrong source. So they entertain it and think it’s a rather cool way of thinking. But in time, they find out that it gets them nowhere. By that time, they need to rearrange almost all of their thoughts so that they can again begin to have some ambition and look forward to their future. I am going to sum up what we should think on or speak in the above Scripture. Here is the list: true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. Can you honestly say that these are the things that you think during the process of your day? But yet, God has spelled it out for us in the church epistle of Philippians. You should be reading the seven church epistles more than any other parts of the Bible. Why? Because they are written directly to you. Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and I and II Thessalonians. In Philippians verse one, it states that the book is written to the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus. That’s us. If you are born again, you can be referred to as a saint.

A long time ago when I first got into the Word of God, my branch leader was a woman and she was the most dynamic woman of God that I have ever met. She taught me every basic thing that I needed to know to continue with God’s Word. Way back she taught me something in a letter that she wrote to me. She said, “Someday, you are going to do this.” She was referring to Philippians 4: 8. It kind of bothered me a bit but I took the reproof and correction with silence. I realized then that there were some things I was thinking about or speaking about that were not in alignment and harmony with God’s Word. This is constructive criticism and you should be glad when someone tells you something that you need to know. I have carried this point around with me all of my life. This woman of God was amazingly dynamic. I appreciated what she said even though it was tough to take. Overall, it helped me in the long run and still does to this day. So if people are not thinking what it says in Philippians 4: 8, they are not doing God’s Will and so they are not standing approved before God. But almost the worst part of this is that they leave their minds open to the god of this world and he takes advantage of that and he will put that apathetic attitude in every facet of your life. Then you wonder why you do not succeed or progress. The enemy steals, kills and destroys. That’s all that he does – that is his ministry. So if you open a door to his attacks, believe me, he will enter into your life and he will destroy you if he can. Remember, we always have a way out and there is only one way out and that is to know and apply God’s Word.

Instead of going from Scripture to Scripture, let’s just talk about the Scriptures and get some more examples. When Paul was murdering Christians, he thought he was acting for the true god. He thought he was doing the right thing until the true God intervened and told Paul that he was working against Him. Paul turned from his apathetic attitude to one of great caring for the Christian believers. By the way, he was given the great mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory. God trusted Paul with this great mystery and Paul became a great apostle.

You should never let the world get you so disgusted that you get this I don’t care attitude. If you push on and keep learning and applying God’s Word, you will eventually become victorious and successful in no matter what you do. You see you have to realize that it is up to you to believe. No one can believe for you. You must believe and act on the Word of God every day of your life. You need to develop patterns to train your mind to think what the Word says you should think about a situation. God has an answer for every single situation in life. You are responsible for the Word of God that you know. Actually, you are not responsible if you do not know the Word of God. So you should continue your quest to learn more and more of the Word of God. It’s that simple. Here is what Paul says concerning his absence in the book of Philippians.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation [wholeness] with fear and trembling [reverence and obedience]. -- Philippians 2: 12

Yes, we all need teachers at some point in our lives. But Paul is saying that you must work out your own salvation with reverence and obedience. This was a letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians. He is trying to motivate them to continue with respect and obedience to study God’s Word. And we must do the same. We must be dependent upon God and not upon others. We must go to God in the morning every single morning. And we pray to God for the day and for the things that are important on our heart. This also shows respect and obedience to the Scriptures because we are exhorted to pray not only with our understanding, but to pray in the spirit which is speaking in tongues. If you are thinking on these things which are obviously spiritual matters, you don’t give the enemy a chance to get in your head and put that apathetic feeling in your heart. In other words, you don’t give up. You just keep trying. That way, you don’t take what appears to be the easy way out, and think “I just don’t give a damn”. “I couldn’t care less what happens”. “I can’t do anything about it anyway.” Well the truth of the matter is that you can do something about it. When you stand upon God’s Word, you shine like the sun and whether you believe it or not, many people want to be like you and want to know what your secret is. Tell them. Don’t be afraid. There was a time in my life when I had a great opportunity to witness God’s Word one-on-one right to a person’s face. When I got done with witnessing and usually successful at it, I felt a great peace that would overcome me. Often, when I am doing these teachings, I feel that way. You’ve got to tell people about God’s Word or they will never hear it. If a person did not witness to me the Word of God over 40 years ago, I may have never gotten the chance to get born again and to learn and apply God’s Word. A lot of times when I witnessed, I could not have an ‘I don’t care’ attitude because I saw what God was doing not only in my life, but in the life of the person that I was witnessing to. Their whole life changed for the better and strangely enough they always gave the credit to me. The credit belongs to God. God always gets the glory.

You see, when a leader and/or believers leaves an area, a lot of people get discouraged and disgusted and develop open doors for the enemy to move in. He will put all kinds of crazy thoughts in your head, like what’s the use. Why did those people leave you behind by yourself if they love you so much? He is the accuser of God’s people and many times I’m accused of things that I never did. So I learned how to avoid most people who were simply thorns in my flesh. And then my peace would return to me. But if I didn’t care about what people said or tried to do, then I would be defeated and that is the purpose of this teaching – so that you will not be defeated, but be successful in everything that you do in your life if you control your thinking. That is the condition that you must fulfill and God asks us to do and think certain things. There is always a condition pertaining to the success of whatever task you are undertaking. I always said that God respects conditions and not persons. So you see in that one Scripture such as Philippians 2: 12, we can almost write a book on that one Scripture. So let’s move on and find another Scripture that gives us hope, desire and ambition to stand approved before God and not to give up.

Here is another very short Scripture that teaches us volumes of knowledge regarding spiritual matters.

Rejoice evermore. – I Thessalonians 5: 16

Apparently if these two words are used in the Bible, then it is available to rejoice all of the time. Now how in the world can you rejoice when you don’t give a damn about anything or anybody? Can you see the great wisdom in just these two words? God never, in fact it’s unthinkable, that God would tell His people to be miserable and to be discouraged and to not give a damn about anything.

So apathy comes from the wrong source and if you get to a certain point where you’re really apathetic, it becomes a spiritual matter. Satan has a devil spirit for apathy alone. He sends that spirit or spirits to people who open the door for him. Let me explain this in a different way that you may be able to understand and associate the two examples. If a person overeats, they become overweight. If a person who was overweight continues to eat to the point where it’s out of their control, they can then give place to a spirit of obesity. Once this happens, it’s tough to get delivered but it is available.

I can do all things through Christ which [who] strengthens me. -- Philippians 4: 13

If it’s God’s Will, you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to. I lost about 33 pounds one time when I was a younger. I would get on the scale every other day and check my weight. I was determined to do the right thing. I wanted to look good. I lost all that weight and I give much of the credit to swimming a mile a day. It is because I cared. Many people complimented me since I was at Penn State at that time. But you know it’s a funny thing, many people tried to get me to stop losing weight by telling me I looked just right. In my heart which was in alignment with the true God, I knew I needed to lose more weight. Just look in the mirror and take all your clothes off. I wanted to lose 10 more pounds and I did. Then I was satisfied with the goal that God put on my heart. I had to buy all new clothes and I loved it. It just seemed like some people actually cared about how I looked, but some people may have been envious and jealous of my new appearance. These are the people that you must watch out for. Their “I don’t care attitude” could wear off on you if you are weak and you do not study God’s Word. So be careful in the things that you attempt to do in this world. Many times it is best not to tell anyone what important goals you are striving for. Remember that. And let me conclude this paragraph by telling you something that you should know and may surprise you. There was a girl in one of my classes that told me how good I looked. She was the one person that I remember that told me not to lose any more weight. Believe it or not she was a Nutrition major. It just struck me funny. I was still overweight. Why did she tell me that? Again people don’t see where things or thoughts are coming from when they don’t know God’s Word. I don’t need to tell you where I believe that suggestion came from, do I? And she was a nice girl – I liked her very much. So you need to watch that. It’s people that you care about the most that the enemy will try to turn on you and I’ve seen this in my own family. People cut down the ministry that was responsible for me learning this great Word of God. And guess what? They did not know one single thing about the ministry that I studied with. Ha! Can you imagine that? It’s ironic isn’t it? That is why I will say it one more time. You must be sharp spiritually. To be able to discern what source the information you’re getting is coming from. Okay? Most of this sharpness will come to you in time the more and more you learn and apply the Word of God.

Maybe we should wrap up this teaching instead of repeating what we already went over. I believe the point was made to the degree that you can understand it. This final verse sums up everything I have attempted to teach you. The first verse I memorized many years ago.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. -- I Timothy 4: 15, 16

I and II Timothy are pastoral epistles for those who desire leadership positions. It is important that we do the same things a great leader does.

The first verse says to meditate upon these things. What things? All that is, not only mentioned in this chapter, but everything that is stated in God’s Word. We are to concentrate on spiritual matters. Remember the first verse in this teaching? Give your whole self to God’s Word. Then the resulting profit in your life will appear to all people. It’s often been said that people will read you, before they read the book.

Take a good look at yourself and unto the Word of God and continue in the Word of God. The renewed mind is a continuous process. We keep renewing our mind until Jesus Christ returns. By doing this, you save yourself and those that hear you.

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