THERE'S POWER AGAINST EVIL WHEN WE NAME IT FOR WHAT IT IS AND BRING IT TO THE LIGHT

What's in a name? Plenty. For some reason, when we name something -- when we call a thing what it is -- we solve a problem.

Forsake metaphors. Stop sugar-coating.

When it is named, evil loses power. When something is good, it gains strength in the Light. When it is evil, it loses potency.

Look at the abortion crisis. They try to cover up what it really involves. They won't name it. That would expose the evil. Instead of a human, they call what they want to destroy "tissue." It is the product of insemination. When a woman wants a child, it's a "baby." When she doesn't, it's a "fetus." Deception is the devil's energy.

How he hides behind falsity! How he loves the shadows! Especially, he hides behind false words. Those who are in favor of terminating the unborn made decisive headway when they changed the debate from "abortion" to "choice." They made evil sound good.

Choice implies freedom. It sounds American. It implies a "liberty." Unfortunately, it is the right to commit what is extremely wrong. Name it for the evil that it is and you gain power over it. A priest was pointing this out this week. You bring it to the light.

How we shield the forces of darkness with semantics! A crisis this is. We talk more than we reflect. Thus, we don't get to the truth. We're most plagued by what we don't recognize. Do you talk more than you pray, than you meditate? Indeed, if your name is biblical, have you reflected on its meaning? Have you ever considered how Jesus renamed His apostles?

When we don't name something, it has the power of secrecy. Look at a spy. He loses all his ability to operate when he is recognized for his true identity. The same is true of the "devil" (who for his name has turned "lived" backwards). A thief can only operate when no one knows his name.

Evil grows -- obfuscates -- when we allow it to hide (the devil is the "prince of darkness"), and so when we see evil we must name it for that. As a Church, we have to stop beating around the bush. When something comes from the devil, we should cite it as coming from the devil (instead of resorting to the terminology of excuse that comes from sociology, psychology, and anthropology, which modern seminarians study more than they study exorcism).

Tell it like it is and there is freedom! Confusion is a first sign of the evil one's presence. Deliverance ministers will testify to this. At Gadarenes, didn't Jesus demand that the demons reveal their names? During an exorcism, it is often the naming of a demon that breaks its hold. The same is true of deliverance: "spirit of lust," "spirit of the occult," "spirit of lying," "spirit of stubbornness."

When we know the name of something, it orients us. It causes us to focus. It reveals the nature of what we must encounter. We have a target. It strips away the factor of surprise. It takes away the confusion that otherwise serves as camouflage. We know there is power in names by the very fact that once we identify a demon it is cast out in the Name of Jesus!

That's because when we accurately name something, we are telling the simple truth, and the Bible tells us that "the truth will set you free."

How much truth is there in your life? How much truth is there in what you acknowledge? Do you acknowledge faults? Do you cast them out?

As for simplicity: when Christ encountered illness, He didn't call it some polysyllabic medical term. He didn't analyze it from a psychological vantage point. If it was a demon, He called it a demon (and cast it out by name).

As we have seen in politics, the cover up is often worse than the crime. How many things continue to plague us because they are called something else, because there is a "cover-up," because we don't name them? How many things in our society? How many things in our lives?

State what is evil or incorrect in your life by name, see it for what it is (spirit of gossip, spirit of jealousy, spirit of pride, spirit of gluttony), then cast it out and keep it out and feel the burden lift. See the illumination. Look for the Light.

Look for the sun (and the Son) to rise.

[resources: Deliverance from Evil Spirits]

[Houston retreat: Michael Brown on miracles, prophecy, current times;  Tampa retreat]

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