With Knowledge Comes Responsibility

 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them,

because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4 (NKJV)

This Thursday and Friday, I will be a chaperone to my son’s class’ field trip. We’ll be going to Sukhothai. It’s an ancient city located in Lower Northern Thailand, over 400 kilometers north of Bangkok. It’s a popular tourist spot because it is located near the ruins of the ancient city with the same name. The old Sukhothai was the Thai capital during the 13^th century. Back then, when Thailand was known as Siam, the old Sukhothai was founded by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great. He was a monarch highly respected because he created not just the Thai alphabet, but the foundation for Thailand’s politics, religion, and monarchy (Source: Wikitravel.org).

Ancient Buddha figures seen at the park in Sukhothai.

The province's temples and monuments have been restored and it has numerous sites of historical interest. One example of what can be seen there is pictured on the right.

In light of what seventh grade students might do, or not, I was prompted to write today’s post. Sometimes we go through all kinds of seminars, conferences, training, courses, and various sessions without a thought of when we would specifically use what we’ve learned. I believe this field trip is an example of a time when one of those sessions will come in handy. Specifically, I remember a training seminar taught by Neil Anderson, the author of “Victory Over the Darkness”, “Bondage Breaker” plus close to thirty other books. A few years ago, he came and spoke here in Chiang Mai and then representatives from his organization: “Freedom in Christ Ministries” did further training. At the time, I was fascinated that they taught on spiritual oppression and the ways that we can open ourselves up to it. One particular example used was of a group of short term mission workers who did prayer walks in several Buddhist temples. When they finally returned to America, every single person on their team was ill. It wasn’t what they ate, nor was it a virus. When they isolated the incident when they all felt ill, it was after they visited a temple where as they entered, they stooped down to get in a particular low threshold. As they did that, a Buddhist monk was inside the room sitting in a typical lotus-like pose on a higher platform. According to the person who taught the session, that innocent act of entering was considered by the evil spirits to be indicative of submission because they stooped, or bowed (although not intentionally, to the monk). Later on, each person on the team was attacked and oppressed spiritually which resulted in their illness.

The great news was that after discerning the cause of their illness, they only had to pray against the attacks of the enemy and they were all immediately healed. It was simply a matter of how to pray. The verse above rings very true and we can certainly put our trust in who we have inside of us. BUT, even better is to not necessarily do something that will provoke a spiritual attack directed towards us. May the Lord grant us wisdom to determine how those actions can come about. And as I chaperone, may I have the eyes to see in the spiritual to properly steer, lead, and guide those that will be with me. Thank you, Lord, that it is a matter of asking Your help.