Many years back, at the New Creation Church in Suntec Singapore, I was in the midst of worshiping God, and behold, there was a glorious blue coloured streaming cystal like rain or droplets falling vertically from top to bottom next to the worship stage. I stared at it a few minutes, thinking that it must be some kind of fancy stage lighting. I then closed my eyes again and it soon dissapeared. None of my friends saw it nor such fancy stage works exist. God was pouring down his glory and annointing during that praise and worship the time almost seem to stop for eternity. Thereafter, the church population seems to increase exponentially. 

There is indeed a vast spiritual realm and often the more intellectual could not ever imagine in the earth bound mind where we are quick to summarise it as a mystery not to be explored further in case we may find something supernatural that disturbs of theology. However, the bible is supernatural and if we had wanted to explain it with our mind, we soon end up with nothingness or a sweeping generalization that God is love effectively throwing out the bible and the faith experience of 5,000 years.

In the battle by the Christian Right against gays, the key to understanding the bible in terms of the clobber verses is not to say that the bible is wrong or cannot be taken literally, but to explore the ancient religious practices. Here, the reality of good and evil, the battles between spiritual forces sets the scene. Each spiritual force attempts to get mankind on their side, when men were created to worship God and God alone.

 There is a blame game to hide the fact that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, not because of homosexuality or because of inhospitability, but because these men were wicked and wanted their women to have sex with the heavenly angels to create a mixed race of giants prohibited by God which had resulted in their earlier flood of the entire earth.    If the seed is corrupted then Jesus Christ cannot be born. When the towns people attack the angels, they were pocessed by the spirit of Baal/Ahsteroth to violate the angels of God. The entire city was destroyed because the people within it was pocessed beyond redemption.

We are so fearful of facing an ancient past of powerful angelic and demonic beings,of spiritual forces battling in the heavenlies, because we have a luvvy duvvy form of Christianity where everything is about love and doing good works. It makes our faith easier to manage. Is it also easier to blame gays and assign it to a sinful "lifestlye" when it has all to do with religious people of faith worshipping foreign gods.

Just like the Balaam, we have looked through filtered glasses when reality is obvious even to the donkey. And that reality spoken throughout the Old Testament and in ancient Jewish religious text is of a highly religious society where people sacrificed themselves to the gods, and even have sex with the temple priests so that the demonic spirit can enter to the devotee to pocess him or her. They were not gays.

The Christian Right would be reluctant to enter to the ancient religious world because these were bible believing Jews, who had tried to follow the law, but ended up having anal sex and pocessed by other gods. So much for the ten commandments and following the laws preached so fervently by some mega churches. In Romans, Paul was so adament that the fruits of the adherance to the religious law was sin, and the worst kind of sin in the idol worship. It is the grace of God that gives us power to overcome.

When Paul said to the Corinthians about taking the communion unworthily it was not because of any sin per say. They were drinking the blood of the lamb ie comsuming and joining themselves to Jesus Christ, when they had already joined themselves to the demonic forces.

Taking the communion unworthily Is unlikely because of the sin of social injustice or not taking care of widows as if it makes such a big difference when the church in Corinth is new and small in number to have no many Jewish widows in their midst. The early church was not only Jews but God fearers hence it was more of a gentile church rather than a Jewish temple where widows would be an issue (due to their patriachal culture where widows are ignored and left to die). To see it as an issue of social justice when the idol worship and prostitution was so rampant in Corinth is delusional.

When we are not aware of the powers of spiritual light and darkness and take it for granted as if they do not exist or that the only deity is God and He is about love, we are denying the entire blibical construction and reality of Jewish and Christian Faith and religious experiences. We may not believe in angels and demons, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, nor that they do not exert their influence. We are not gods such that they only exist when we say so.

(Luke 10:18 NIV) He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

(Luke 10:19 NIV) I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

(Luke 10:20 NIV) However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

The authority has been given to us in Jesus Christ to come against the spiritual forces, but the greatest blessing is that we are saved in Jesus Christ, and our names are already written in heaven in account of our faith in Christ death and resurrection.

The authority in Christ would not be as meaningful if we don't believe and continue to live within our delusion where the world is centered around our carnal self and our own ideas about God.  Angels and Demons don't just dissapear when we close our eyes and ignore them. They have been playing a pivotal role in the church since the beginning of the church. Even Jesus said that He has kept the discples protected from the evil one.

We have to be sanctified by the Word our God, the revelation concerning Christ and His redeeming power over the principalities and His forgiveness and cleansing to make us whole (by Grace) that the forces of darkness cannot use our failures to come against us. The truth and the power of salvation comes in God's love, mercy and grace.

Amazingly, Jesus prayer was not for the church to grow into the largest "religion" in history or to help the poor and heal the wounded as a matter of social justice, but that we should be kept and protected from the evil one.

 (John 17:15 NKJV) "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

(John 17:16 NKJV) "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

(John 17:17 NKJV) "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

We are inclusive and queer more than we can imagine, for every Sunday, all sorts of spiritual forces may have attended in our services. Watch and see, for they are all around us especially in those churches who consider these as mere superstition and have no power to loosed their grip.

We say that the Holy Spirit is surely present because we desire His protection. Maybe Christ is not in our midst when He is not honoured in places where many consider Him only a good teacher, or do not believe He was God or have resurrected. 

We can only extend the kingdom of God into the hearts and minds of the nations for the GLBT community, If we stand up, and put on the armor of spiritual warfare with praises to Jesus, preaching the Gospel of Salvation with the demonstration of power and the annointing of the Holy Spirit.

There is a burning spiritual light of God's power and might through Jesus Christ to shine brightly where once the power of darkness have kept a shadow over the GLBT community to keep it inside the closet. The light of God's love is shining upon the GLBT community and the Light is moving on burning a path that cannot be stopped for Jesus is coming back for gays too.