Don't Pet the Dragon

"DON’T

Pet THE

DRAGON"

By

C. Michael Davis

© 2006 C. Michael Davis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/7/2006

ISBN: 978-1-4259-7372-8 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006909827

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

(All Scripture used in this book is from the New American Standard unless otherwise noted.)

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Dedication

This book is dedicated to several different groups of people.  To list each individual that has helped me along the way would almost take up the space of a book in itself, so I have chosen to do it by groups instead.

First to my children and grandchildren, who have been supportive in all of my struggles and yet they love me and include me in the events of their lives.

Second to my friends and Church family, who have been right by my side as I have walked with God and yes fought with Him, always to the point of surrender.  Many have read my writing for years and it was my friends that encouraged me to transform my writings and Sunday school lessons into this book. I will mention by name a few of the closer friends that have not only encouraged me, but actually pushed me along at times when I wanted to do something else and end the struggles;

Johnny Ross…Marion Zeigler…Catherine Jennings…Ken Smith...my brother Jimmy and my pastors Darryl Davids and Steve Durham; Russell and Ruth Ashmore and Bert Moore.

Most of these have remained and still remain in contact with me almost on a weekly basis.

A special acknowledgement of Chris Tweet who has been my Timothy over the last three years and through our discussions helped me develop much of the contents of this book.

Last and equally as important as any of the others I would like to thank my friend  with Author House Publications, Elaine Headley-Jerome who for over three years called and encouraged, advised and helped me get through the publishing process of this book and in the course of time has become a valued friend.

We made it Elaine! Now it is in God’s hands to do with as He will.

About the Author

Michael grew up on a farm in lower Orangeburg County, South Carolina, was baptized in a small Baptist Church and graduated from high school in 1963 with a class of twelve. He attended Southern Westlyn University and North Greenville College majoring in Christian studies with a minor in History. For the past several years he has been teaching in public education working with special needs children.

His baptism by water at the age of twelve occurred after much fear of hell caused by a screaming preacher that presented a God of hell-fire and brimstone, ready to kill any one that didn’t immediately fall in line with the laws of the Bible. This greatly contributed to his early struggles with God. His spiritual growth over the years developed the gentle method in which he teaches about the God he came to know; not God the tyrant, but God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Michael teaches by sharing his own spiritual journey against the back drop of scripture he feels God used to lead him through his trials and baptism by fire. His goal as a Bible teacher is to help others see why Scripture study and prayer are critical in the struggle to draw closer to God and to bring about the transformation of ones nature from walking by sight to walking by faith. Through questions, he provokes a deeper look at the journey all Christians take and encourages a look beyond the obvious to the war for their souls waged by Satan, the dragon, the serpent of old.

Rev 12:17

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Introduction

This book will not save you from hell nor will it answer all of your questions about spiritual matters.  What it will do if you are borderline in determining whether to believe or to reject the idea of God and Satan or of heaven and hell, is to help you with the thinking process.  If you are already a believer, hopefully this book will help you develop the study method of going to the Bible with questions.  This book reveals how God spoke to me through the events in my life and the people He placed around me; not one soul was there by coincidence or mistake. None of us were just wound up like some toy and turned loose to make it on our own, although I’ve felt that way at times.

Having taught Sunday school for more than twenty years, I have seen and heard many others going through the same struggles I went through, not knowing exactly how to go to God in prayer and Bible study to clear away the confusion that is always brought about by Satan, the dragon.  Many read the Bible through in a year and go to God with a want list either for themselves or for others.  No, I do not believe I know more than others, but I do not trust heresy or the way someone else thinks about God.  I wanted to know Him personally, not just know about Him.  I believe God helps me write in a manner that connects the dots between scripture and life as we are living it now.  This book talks about my struggle to understand and know God better.  It talks about my need and desire for a change in my heart.  My struggle to surrender has been an ongoing war between my fleshly conscience and my spiritual conscience.

This book is about my journey from seeing God as being about religion to knowing Him as my Father and personal Savior. It is about how I moved from thinking of Satan as a religious myth to realizing just how real, evil and active he is in our lives and the lives of those around us.

There are several satanic organizations active today.   One is the Church of Satan, which was established in 1966 in San Francisco, California, by Anton Szandor LaVey, whose philosophy is that pleasure, should be the principal goal in life.  May seem like a good idea, but it led to the fall of Rome and many marriages, including my own.  This philosophy is currently costing the United States dearly.  Don’t always think of pleasure as referring strictly to sexual pleasure; ask any addicted person.  A spin off from the Church of Satan, the Temple of Set, was formed by Michael Aquino in the mid seventies.  There are several other groups around made up mostly of young people that haven’t a clue about the dangers of petting the dragon; they are mostly seeking attention. This activity, however, is all the work of confused humans and no threat to the population of the world.  This is not the activity that needs to attract our concern; it is the subtle activity within the government, the Church, the educational systems, the news media, the court rooms and within our own neighborhoods that need to make us take a closer look at the work of Satan and what God has to say to us about this activity.   Believe me, evil is not just a plot in a Steven King movie, it is permeating our society more and more as society turns its back on God, drifting into the secular snare of the dragon.  Think about what is considered comedy or what is now considered acceptable for small children in the form of cartoons.  Pay attention to the suggestiveness of commercials on television and in magazines.  Be more sensitive to the process used to make you believe that being, acting and dressing dumb is cool. Do you no longer wonder about what happened to the high standards that made this nation looked up to? How are we viewed today? Our flag is burned and hung upside down within our own borders.

This work is a shared learning experience and hopefully you will learn and grow in your understanding of the struggle we all go through as God brings us out of a life based on sight, to a better understanding of a life based of faith.  I would like for all readers to understand the following teaching philosophy of George McDonald.  It expresses my teaching philosophy as well.

I believe that no teacher should strive to make others think as he thinks, but to lead them to the Living Truth, to the Master Himself, of whom alone they can learn anything, who will make in themselves know what is true by the very seeing of it.

I begin study with prayer, however, I feel fairly sure that there are some of you who will choose to read this book yet may not actually believe in prayer and simply go through the motions. You may even believe that prayer is not much more than some sort of religious crutch.  You may even be involved in religious activities, yet not really into Bible study; check your spiritual pulse, you and God know the truth and that is all that matters.  When is the last time you studied your Sunday school lesson or got upset because the preacher went over the time a little, causing you to miss getting to the restaurant ahead of the crowd?  I have found that to some, God is not real or if He is real, He is, watching us from a distance! and only occasionally gets involved in our lives.  It is okay if any of the above is true in your belief or understanding at this time in your life.  As you work through this book you will begin to understand why I appreciate your beliefs and how I came from those same struggles with the truth to where I am now in my effort to know God; I still have miles to go before I sleep.[1] I believe that by the time you reach the end of this book you will realize a change in the way you see God, Bible study and prayer.  You will certainly have a different view of Satan and the war for the souls of all people.

I began the writing part of this project while living in Wedgefield, South Carolina, where I taught an adult Sunday school class for two years. God began His part of this project….. Well your guess is as good as mine as to when He planned my life and the workmanship it would take to bring me from a tadpole to a frog, from a caterpillar to a butterfly, from a sight walker to a faith walker!  Being born again into God’s family is God’s work and it is accomplished with each beat of our heart for as long as we live; it is not brought about by a big bang.  When did He start His good work in any of us?  The work of God in the birth of a Christian is as mysterious as God Himself. 

Any attempt to second guess God and His purpose for prompting me to write this book would be pure guesswork on my part. My hope is that this book will help you in your own spiritual struggles to connect some dots between the accounts in the Bible and the events that we all work through in the course of a day.  My desire is that through the questions asked in this book you will see how God used the Scriptures over the years to answer questions for me and how He will speak to you through the Living Word.  Hopefully you will develop an approach to Bible study with questions and come to understand that the Bible is not just a book; it can not be deconstructed, because it speaks to each individual where they are.  Do not just go to the Bible with any old questions, but go to the Bible with deep personal questions about the many areas of your life where you are experiencing struggle.

If my memory serves me well, I remember that Jesus said, I am the answer. He also said, I am the Word and the Truth. Put the two together and where do you go for help in getting the answers to the struggles of life?   I know, what if you don’t believe; trust me God has His ways of persuasion.  Remember though, there is a time issue.  I knew a young man that was almost persuaded to accept Jesus as his Savior, but he chose to wait.  He was killed by a drunk driver on the way home from his senior prom.  Now you must decide how you believe this young man will spend eternity.  Death and eternity are in God’s hands; where you choose to spend it is in your hands.

Luke 12:20

"But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’

My hope and prayer is that you will learn just how serious the activities of Satan are and how that activity impacts your life and the way you think.  Not only your life, but also the lives of everyone you know and love.  Your lack of knowledge could cost not only in monetary losses, but in relationships that you value deeply.   In 1979 I lost a wife that I loved more than I can ever express in words, because I lacked the knowledge of how my selfishness was putty in the hands of Satan.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

The knowledge we reject is the truth about our self-centeredness, our egos and the reason we reject the truth is our desire to be god of our lives. We do not want someone else to be lord over us and that includes Jesus Himself.  I do not want you to come out of this book blaming everything on Satan, saying, The devil made me do it.[2]  We must take responsibility for our own actions.  I do, however, want you to know that Satan is not a joke, he is not a Hollywood creation; he is very real and very interested in every move we make, especially in the direction of God.  He is not only interested, he is actively involved in attempting to lead us astray from our devotion to Jesus Christ and blinding our minds to all truth by keeping us out of Bible study, prayer and meditation. We need to be alert to the fact that there are many voices influencing the way we think therefore affecting our choices, our behavior and our reactions to the events and people we deal with daily.  The voices of radio, television, music, books and the people around us are all influences on our thinking.

Satan and the demonic forces that chose to join him (Revelation 12:7) are involved in keeping as many people as possible from accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior by raising all sorts of speculation about the truth; beyond that he is involved daily, moment by moment, attempting to keep the follows of Jesus Christ from concerning themselves with the Truth of Scripture by having them focus on religious activity rather than a personal relationship with Jesus. If Satan can get you to work for God rather than with God, Satan still runs the show.  Satan manipulates people into writing and producing movies and television programs that cast doubts in the minds of everyone; The Da Vinci Code is just one example.  You can see this tactic used against Eve in the beginning in the third chapter of Genesis.  He knows that his lies are exposed when we get into Scripture, making us potentially dangerous in the war for souls. 

Every Christian is a part of every other Christian forming the body of Christ.  We have a responsibility to everyone that is still blinded by Satan’s lies.  It is our responsibility as ambassadors for Jesus Christ, to join in the battles that God calls us to as He introduces us to the various people He has chosen to bring into our lives.  We will cover the way we are to do battle as this book unfolds. Our bodies are God’s to use to carry out this war for the souls of every human being on planet earth.  Or we can stick our heads in the sand and be used by Satan.  

Simply pick up any news paper and you can see the bigger war, the invisible war, the war that rages for the souls of God’s people.  You can see it in the crimes, the business world, our school systems, and any movement that gets people to focus on self.  Jesus is not the reason for the season, we are.  We are the reason He had to come to earth and die on an old wooden cross; His choice not man’s.

Jesus didn’t worry about the rules and regulations; He focused on the needs of the people.  Now He responds to those needs through the hearts of His own making.  That is where He lives, in you and me and every Christian that holds to the testimony of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.   Satan will do all that he can to disrupt God’s efforts to love a hurting world through His people.  Satan will try to get us to judge others; he will try to get us to be prejudice in our thinking of others, be it through racial issues or lifestyle issues.

Remember you and I have our own dragons that need the attention of the Dragon Slayer, Jesus Christ.  If you go into a situation of secular circumstances, don’t go in shouting Bible verses and thinking of yourself as superior to any one else.  If you feel that way stay home.  Go into battle prayerfully, with another Christian brother or sister.  Relax, be yourself and let people learn that Jesus is present in you by being a loving human being who is sincerely interested in others and their needs.  Do not try to mock God by faking your love and interest in others; it is not necessary to tell them you are a Christian.  If you are sincere, they will know it.  Not only does God know the truth about what is in your heart, but demonic spirits will see right through your insincerity and most people can see how plastic you are as well.  Go into battle with God in charge of your head and heart. He will lead you through the whole battle and you and the person God is reaching out to through you will come out of the war zone victorious.  You will have learned something new about Spiritual warfare and witnessing and Jesus will have rescued another lost soul from Satan’s deadly lies.

Satan and his forces never sleep!  He came after Jesus through the religious leaders while Jesus walked on earth and he still comes after Jesus through religious leaders. Remember Satan is crafty, deceitful and when he is using someone, they are usually completely unaware that they are entertaining fallen angles.  I doubt that it ever crossed Eve’s mind that she was being used by Satan to get to Adam or that she was being confronted by evil.  She was too caught up in her own ego to believe some one else could possibly be smarter than she was. Yet in her lack of knowledge she was petting the dragon, engaging him in conversation and being influenced by his voice. Unfortunately there are many super egos that get into leadership positions in the Church, the government, big business and marriages.  Sooner or later God exposes them for what they are at the time.  That does not always mean God is through with them.  Two examples that come to mind are King David and Jacob of the Old Testament and then there is Peter in the New Testament.  God also exposed my super ego and self-centeredness in 1979, but He wasn’t through with me either.  There is a good chance that your ego could use some buffing and down-sizing.  I hope this book will help you through the process of seeing that truth and allowing God to make it right.

Chapter One

Along the Sandy Shore

Isa 27:1

In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

I had been married to a wonderful woman for a little over five years in February of 1979; we had been married since November of 1974.  I do hope she will forgive me for the hell I put her through during those years.  Our marriage was in a lot of trouble, mainly because of my selfishness.  I accept full responsibility for the failure of my marriage.  We went to our pastor for counseling, but by then it was a little late to salvage the ship.  When he started to pray, I stopped him.  Using the time out signal used in sports, I said, Reverend Carswell, I appreciate prayers and church and all this religious stuff, but we have a marriage going to hell in a hand basket and we need help!  We are dealing with reality here and all anyone wants to do is pray.  We need real help.  Do you understand what I’m trying to say?

That day I think he understood something, but I’m not sure he understood everything that was going on with me.  No one around me understood what was going on.   I didn’t know what was going on with me either.  I could not see the spiritual problem, only the people around me.  I blamed others for everything.  It never dawned on me that God was very much at work in our lives that very moment as we sat there in that pastor’s office.

I viewed Satan and God both as characters in this thing called religion.  I now know that neither of them are about religion and both of them are very much about reality!  My prayer as I write is that the God you may see as nonexistent or at best at a distance will draw you into this book and through this book He will touch your heart and make you know the truth by the very seeing and feeling of it as He did me through each experience.  It is not my words that will change your life; my words will only lead you to the Master and it is His words that will humble you and draw you to Jesus Christ.  It is His love that will begin to bring you into a love affair with Him leading to trust and therefore obedience.  It is God Himself that will bring you into a personal relationship and set your roots so firm that all the power of hell can not remove you from His love.  Will you still sin?  You bet you will, but you will become so miserable that you will start to scratch the different sins off your list of things you want to do.  I hope and pray that as you read about my experiences brought about by fighting with God and Satan, you will begin to make some sense out of your own chaotic struggle with trying to know what is real and what is make believe.

Watch how Jonah struggled with doing it God’s way and how God loved Jonah into submission.  As you read, remember God said, My ways are not your ways.  The story of Jonah helped me take stock in how I approached God and how God tenderly dealt with me, especially in the eighties as I was just beginning to draw closer to Him.  I still had a lot of false ideas about what I thought God would be like.  As it turned out the God I have come to know is nothing like the God that others had painted for me over the years.

Jonah 1:3-4

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

Just how miserable do you think Jonah became before God got his attention?

Jonah knew better than to think he could really flee from God, and His general presence, which is everywhere; so did I way down deep. Jonah’s thought was to flee from his responsibility to God’s people, from the place that reminded him of God.  This was also true of me, but I suppressed this truth or out-right denied it all together.  God has a neat way of using fear to bring our hearts to a point of returning to Him.  Notice how God introduced Himself to everyone on the boat that day and what brought them to a point of prayer.  The point being that when God is putting you through some event He has engineered, it is not just about you it has an affect on everyone around you.  You