Demise: Isolation

Satan has a strategy for the Demise of the church and of the individual. He uses different tactics to acquire our demise. Satan realizes that when Christians are gathered together in the name of God, He will be in their midst. (Matt 18:20). So one of Satan’s strategies is to keep fellow believers from gathering together by convincing them of their need to be alone. Satan plants the temptation to withdraw fellowship, (for self-protection or self-righteous reasons) to remove our support system. Satan knows it is not good for man to be alone, so he tries to get us to move into a form of isolation.
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Pet. 5:8) If you’ve ever watched the nature programs on National Geographic or Discovery you can see the symbolism in this statement. A herd of wildebeests are gathered at the river to drink. If the lion pounces while they are organized, he will get his brains kicked in. But, when he lets out a roar and causes the animals to go into a panic, he is able to separate a weak or young one to feast on. He has isolated one to devour. That’s what Satan does, he roars to get us to panic, so he can isolate us and devour us.
How does he do it? Sometimes he has us concentrating on our own sins. He gets us feeling unworthy to serve God, the church, or the people. He’ll whisper in our ears our moral failings, and tell us we’re no good. He gets us to focus on what God has already forgotten about. A pastor had been called to a new church to lead. He had a past that he didn’t want the congregation to know about. After a couple of months, a woman in the congregation came to him and said she had visions of God every time she prayed and that God and her would talk. The pastor being skeptical of the situation devised a plan. He asked her, "The next time you talk with God, ask him what great sin your pastor had committed." The woman said she would inquire of God. Later in the week, the woman approached the pastor and told him that while she was praying, she was visited by God. The pastor asked her, "Did you ask Him the question that I asked you to ask?" She nodded and answered, "I asked what great sin you had committed in the past and God’s answer was, ‘I don’t know, I forgot it." Don’t let your past sins keep you from worshiping with others.
Another tactic is fear. Satan gets us to be afraid of the church and the people. We become uncomfortable of the situation. We’re afraid of what others will think of us. We’re afraid of what others will do. We’re afraid we’ll embarrass ourselves when the church does their normal traditional things. We’re afraid of appearing stupid around others. All of those excuses for fear are hogwash. Christians brothers and sisters are not concerned about where you’ve come from, what you wear, how embarrassing you are with the traditions. Christian brothers and sisters are concerned about where you are going though.
The bible teaches against isolated worship. "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" (Rom 10:14 NIV emphasis mine) Someone has to teach the gospel. The passage goes on to say that noone can not teach without being taught. Worship needs to include more than 1 person. Scripture itself is not meant to be held by a persons own interpretation "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation." (2 Pet 1:20 NIV)
So what does the bible say then about worshiping together. First it doesn’t have to be in a group of 200 or so, it can be a small number "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Mat 18:20 NIV) So it is possible to have small group bible studies, but don’t make that you only form of worship. We still need to gather with believers for the purpose of encouragement. "Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord's coming is getting closer ." (Heb 10:25 CEV)
It is not good for man (or woman) to be alone. We need the support of others to help us grow as Christians . Only by meeting together on a consistent basis, can we overcome Satan’s strategy for our Demise

Have a blessed week
Daniel Vandenburg