The Exorcist's Bestiary

“The sabbath is to time what the temple and tabernacle are to space.” This old quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel popped into my head last night, and I thought to myself, I oughta wake up early and blog about sacred time and the demonic. After all, I’ve seen many demonic attacks hit during the time people intentionally set aside to be with God and his church.

Have you found that to be true in your own life? Has the sacred time that you’ve set apart to be at a church service or a worship service backfired on you before? Sure, you attended, but all you could hear the whole time were oppressive thoughts that wanted to steal the fruit of the Spirit from your life and ruin your relationships with others?

Sacred time is a war zone. Demons know the power that Christians hold when even two or three are gathered. Their main tactic in such moments is sabotage. By this, I don’t mean that they’re messing with the technological equipment or the building in some way—rather, they’re messing with Christians in a Screwtape Letters kind of way, planting thoughts to put our attention in toxic places.

In hindsight, I now realize why Heschel’s quote was in my head last night. At the time, I thought it’d make a good blog post. But post-Sunday service, I realize it was more of a warning from the Holy Spirit: “Remember Jamin, Sunday is sacred time. And tomorrow, in particular, is going to be heavy. Your mind is in the crosshairs. Recall these words when you’re trying to figure out why it felt so extra.” Fortunately, I noticed the war zone halfway through our worship set. Unfortunately, I didn’t put the warning together until after service, nor could I more fully shake the thoughts until well into the afternoon.

Eyes on Jesus church. There are a lot of other voices looking for our attention.