Not. One. Inch.

There are several kinds of public transportation here in Haiti.

You can hire a motorcycle and driver to take you most anywhere, or, for less money, flag down a pick-up truck, known as Tap-Taps. The truck bed has benches and a cover, and a kid hanging off the back of the tap-tap “Tap-Taps” on the side when a passenger needs to get on or off.

And for even less money, you can try to flag down a barreling huge yellow bus cram jammed with people. Matt and I both have had the adventure of bus travel, and it is hot, dangerous, and most of all, CROWDED. Chickens, pineapples, school children, scaffolding, cement, paint, books, clothes, men and women of all shapes and sizes and everything you can imagine in between sit three or four to a seat, stand in all the aisles, pack around the driver, and stand on the stairs by the open door.

Nobody is more “in” than anybody else. If you have one foot perched precariously on the bottom step and cling for dear life to the door handle while the driver tears around mountains and potholes, you are as much on the bus as anybody else. You will arrive (by the grace of God) the same time and place as everyone else, unload for repairs like everyone else, feel each bump like everyone else.

Years ago, before Emmaus Biblical Seminary even thought about building a new campus here in Sacanville, there was a HUGE mango tree just a few yards from our front door, where the women’s dorm now sits. I’ve told you before what a dark and Satanic place Sacanville chooses to be, and this is part of the history of Sacanville as much as the present, perhaps more.

Under this mango tree, for decades on end, hundreds of people gathered for worship, chanting and singing praises to demons and Satan himself. The small ceremonies we frequently fall asleep to supposedly pale in comparison to the huge services once held under this tree God created. Much was given to Satan under this tree, and as the stories go, much was given by him as well.

The land was sold, and then sold again to OMS maybe seven years ago, and no one seems quite sure as to whether the previous owner or OMS chopped down the huge tree to make way for construction. Either way, the tree was hauled off and ceremonies split out among the small voodoo temples scattering the countryside of Saccanville.

A few nights ago, several doors in the women’s dorm slammed shut unexpectedly, and Wednesday, a very unsettled kitchen staff (that lives in the dorm during the week) came and asked if we could have a service of exorcism around the dorm, because Satan lives there.

Satan, in Haiti or anywhere else in the world, is no laughing matter. And these women clearly have a pressing spirit of fear about sharing a space with the devil. However, I felt the Lord speaking through me to come alongside these women with His Truth.

Satan doesn’t live in blocks. Neither does Jesus.

Jesus offers us His Holy Spirit, who can therefore, if we desire Him, live in OUR Spirit. He can take our natural spirit of death and replace it with the Spirit of Life. We each have a spirit, and I have seen many times in the past four years that a sleeping body and a dead body look entirely different…one no longer has his spirit.

The Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit lives in US. …the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

Satan doesn’t live in a mango tree, or in the women’s dorm, or in your car or coffee mug or in your basement. Satan lives where he’s asked to, allowed to, desired, permitted, made comfortable, JUST like the Holy Spirit does.

And I don’t believe they can live together. Just as we cannot have radiant light and drowning darkness at the same time, or ravenous hunger and full stomachs, or glorious truth and deathly lies, or pure holiness and blatant immorality.

I don’t believe the Holy Spirit will live where Satan hangs out, and I don’t believe Satan CAN dwell where the Holy Spirit reigns.

But you know, I don’t think Satan needs a whole lot of an invitation. I know how weak my flesh and mind and tongue and heart are. And I think that all Satan needs to get on board is the small corner of a bottom step to plant his foot.

We might have a whole lot of good things packed onto our bus…honestly and generosity and love and patience and kindness. But if we leave a small space by the door for Satan to jump on, he is as much a passenger of our life as anything else.

“Tolerating a wrong attitude toward one another (or a wrong pattern, or a wrong thought, or a wrong action, or a wrong anything!) causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter HOW saintly you are,” O. Chambers says.

“Live constantly, then, reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness that He has given you in His Spirit.”

“The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made for us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures.”

Praying for us each, today… for the women in the dorm and for Matt and I, for our brothers and sisters around the world, for YOU…that we would be SO committed to His path, SO entrenched in His Holy Spirit, SO disciplined in the holiness that He is offering us, that Satan will have Not. One. Inch.

For sin shall NOT master over you. Romans 6:14.

But now, you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, and the outcome is eternal life. Romans 6:22.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal body through His Spirit who dwells in you. For we have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption. We are His children! Romans 8