Spiritual Perceiving (11) Environment

Some Christians are developing an ecological worldview and taking up responsibility for caring for the earth. This is good, but something important is missing from this understanding.

The group that is most serious about polluting and destroying creation are the spiritual powers of evil. They hate the good world that Cod created and want to destroy it. They have already had a good go.

Therefore it is not surprising that when people pursue the things of the world (1 John 2:15), they also harm the creation. They are being led by the world system and the spiritual powers of evil without knowing it.

The people of the world are now really stirred up to care for their environment. This is good, but the environmental movement will fail because they do not understand what they are up against. They only see the physical, so they are not taking into account influences from the spiritual dimensions. Because they do not have victory over the forces of evil, their efforts are doomed to failure. They will often make thing worse without understanding why.

On the other hand, Christians should be embarrassed that they have been so slow to grasp the importance of caring for the created world. Those who have been rescued by God should have understood how much he loves the earth that he created, and how upset he is done at the harm done by the powers of evil. Unfortunately, Christians have often been the worst at destroying the creation, because they did not understand what was happening in the spiritual realms, and who they were working for.

When the gospel has gone into the world and Christians are full of the Spirit, prophetic people will begin speaking healing to the earth. As the sons of God are revealed, the powers of evil will be exposed and pushed out of the physical realms. The Holy Spirit will begin to restore the creation. God’s people will work with him to liberate creation from bondage into glorious freedom (Rom 8:21). We should be working towards that now.