Are You Being Spiritually Poisoned?

Summary

On a communion Sunday the pastor opens with a personal story: twice in his life he was badly poisoned, once in Warsaw while visiting refugees and once in India after eating at a fast-food chain. From there he asks whether a person can be poisoned spiritually, and answers plainly that they can. Spiritual poison is no less deadly than the physical kind, and it shows up when someone stops reading the Bible, stops praying, and stops gathering with the church.

He points to four places where poison gets in: unhealthy fellowship even inside the church, false teaching and false preachers, the wrong company with its idle conversations, and most dangerous of all, the internet. He also names four symptoms of a poisoned soul: a critical spirit toward everyone and everything, constant irritation and impatience, insisting that things go only your own way, and a deadened heart that no longer cares about anything.

The cure is to cut off the source, guarding what we see, hear, and speak, then to go deep into the Word of God and to pray. He recalls the pot of death that was healed when flour was added through Elisha, since flour is bread and bread is the Word of God, and the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses, where everyone who looked in faith was healed. In the same way the bread and cup of the Lord's Supper, received in faith, bring cleansing and healing, because only the blood of Jesus can neutralize the poison of sin.

Key Points

• Spiritual poison is real and, like physical poison, it can be deadly when we stop reading Scripture, praying, and gathering with the church.
• Poison enters through four channels: harmful fellowship, false teaching, the wrong company, and most dangerously the internet.
• Watch for the symptoms of a poisoned soul: a critical spirit, constant irritation, demanding your own way, and a cold heart that no longer cares.
• The first step to recovery is cutting off the source by guarding what you see, hear, and speak.
• Saturate yourself in the Word of God; like flour in Elisha's pot, it neutralizes the poison.
• Prayer carries great power, so bring your wound straight to God.
• Look in faith to the cross; the blood of Jesus is the only true antidote, and the bread and cup received in faith bring cleansing and healing.