Jonathan Pokluda is on a mission to help people “identify spiritual warfare” and “defeat the enemy.”
Pokluda, pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, is tackling the topic of spiritual warfare head-on, recently releasing, “Your Story Has a Villain: Identify Spiritual Warfare and Learn How to Defeat the Enemy,” a new book aimed at helping people see through chaos to discern truth.
In describing the roots of his interest in discussing the spiritual realm, the preacher appealed to his own story being raised Catholic and interacting with multiple denominations.
All of that faith exposure, though, didn’t prepare him spiritually for what was to come.
“[I] lived the kind of crazy college life,” Pokluda said. “They say, ‘Drugs, sex, and rock and roll.’ In my case, ‘Drugs, sex, and hip hop.’ And, then … I graduated. I was in the world. I was at a club. Someone invited me to church. I went, hung over, sat in the back row, and surrendered my life to Jesus.”
From there, Pokluda “went all in with Jesus,” but as he embarked on the journey, he realized something: many people were missing a key piece to the spiritual puzzle:
In fact, some Christians weren’t fully aware — or even seeking — answers about the overarching spiritual battle raging between good and evil that Paul describes in Ephesians 6.
“Being raised Catholic, I would see statues of angels and demons, and I was taught in religion class about the spiritual war that was happening around me,” he said. “And I knew the story in Genesis 3, the fall, you know the tempting of Satan in the Garden of Eden.”
Pokluda continued, “But, if this war was happening around us, I knew very little about it. And I didn’t know what could happen.”
The preacher said he was shocked to realize many people in the Christian community seemed “comfortable not knowing” these answers. This led Pokluda to do an in-depth exploration of what the Bible actually teaches.
“It really was a three-year journey,” he said, noting he eventually went on to do a teaching series about the topic at his church, helping others discover what he learned from Scripture.
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Ultimately, Pokluda said it’s essential for Christians to understand Ephesians 6 and the battle between good and evil, warning that “spiritual warfare has implications for everything we do.”
“It’s a foundational truth to the Christian faith,” he added.
It’s a subject he’s hoping to help believers explore in “Your Story Has a Villain: Identify Spiritual Warfare and Learn How to Defeat the Enemy.” As for why so many Christians avoid such issues, Pokluda said it’s clear there is a “Pentecostal thread” that is very comfortable with the unseen realm.
These people are open to discussing demonic possession, oppression, and other related issues.
“But then there’s a large majority of churches outside of that that they just live in the mystery,” he said. “And they would say, ‘Hey, that’s gray. There’s a lot we don’t know there.'”
These folks might wonder if cases presented as possession are simply mental illnesses, and because of the rampant uncertainty around such matters, they refuse to speak with clarity on the issues.
Pokluda said famed Christian author C.S. Lewis reminded believers of the two errors often made regarding “devils.”
“One is to make too much of them, believing that they are involved in everything,” Pokluda said. “And the second, and which is equally as dangerous, is to not even acknowledge their existence.”
But Pokluda said there’s also a third error he sees today — one that has been very popular in the modern era.
“The more popular error of this century would be believing that there is a demonic realm and that belief having zero implications of anything that we do,” he said. “And if there is a demonic spiritual realm — if there is indeed a battle around us, which I have a deep conviction that there is — then it has implications for everything we do.”
Satan’s attempts to make himself seem like an “allegory or parody,” Pokluda said, are unsurprising. The goal is to convince people he’s simply not real or active.
The preacher is hoping “Your Story Has a Villain” helps people confront these realities so they can survive and thrive.
“The demonic realm [is] seeking to keep you from the abundant life that Christ has to offer,” Pokluda said. “For the non-believer, he tries to keep us from salvation in Christ. And to the believer, he tries to keep us stuck in dead religion away from a thriving relationship with God through his Son.”
He continued, “And, so, he operates both. He’s read the back of the book in Revelation. He knows that his destiny is hell.”
Pokluda said people simply need to give God their hearts.
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