I was pondering with a friend today about the existence of demons or not. I don’t spend much time thinking about it, but almost daily I pray protection around my family. I know my mother and father prayed protection over their children for a lifetime. It is a matter of safety and I think God honors my prayer even if I am unsure of the workings of the evil one.
I believe there have been times in my life when I allowed evil ones to get their claws in me. I seem to have the scars to prove it. I believe they were unable to possess me as I am a child of the king. Being a child of the King does not prevent evil ones from raising hell in and about your life, they just can’t have victory in the chaos unless you let them.
I know everyone has a different slant on this evil versus good thing, but I believe what I believe as much out of experience as revelation. Evil and its manifestations are bad, even when they look good. God always wins over evil, because He is the creator. The truth of victory over evil is as simple as a creation or lessor being can not by definition have victory over or rule its creator. It is pretty simple.
As a word of advice… if you see your life going to hell in a hand basket, it is likely your fault. That is rude, right? But it is true. If your life is a snowball rolling down the mountainside gaining momentum and size, it is likely you started the ball rolling and evil ones are having a ball keeping it rolling. You might even prefer to have the company of the evil ones because then at least you are not alone. Am i right?
One of two outcomes are inevitable. You are either going to crash and burn or you will turn to the Father. It is your choice. Most prefer the crash and burn and then claim ignorance in the carnage of destruction. You get to say… if i had only known… But you do know. You know that Jesus is the only way, you just choose to take what seems the only reasonable way, which is your way.
So I have a word for you or rather i have The Word for you. From the depths of the hell you are living… get a new testament copy of The Message and start reading from page one. Only take a break to do the things you must do to exist, then begin reading again. It will take you less than 30 days to read the inspired Word of God in the Message version.
Somewhere in the midst of the read, you will experience life changes.. they will be small at first much like the snow ball of evil rolling down the hill once was. Keep reading. When you finish the book the first time, pick it up and again and start all over. Read page one and go to page two. You don’t even have to understand. Just read and ask God to reveal whatever He wants. Don’t you pick. Let God pick. He’s smarter than you, remember.
So you say, “I could never do that.” and I say, “I am sorry. It is unlikely you will ever experience the God I know.” It is that simple. Read or die. It seems like a simple choice to me. What will your choice be? Do you prefer being the evil ones playground. Maybe so or maybe you will read. Maybe you will find a love for the Word. Maybe your new snowball rolling down the hill becoming larger everyday will be righteous and you will discover Jesus abiding in you.
I don’t know. It is your choice. It is your snowball… It is your fault.
God loves you and so do i. Read…
archie
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Great post, Archie. Thanks!
Hi Archie;
“If your life is a snowball rolling down the mountainside gaining momentum and size, it is likely you started the ball rolling and evil ones are having a ball keeping it rolling.”
That is a statement which on the surface may seem true but really isn’t.
Look at Job. How about children who have parents who beat them or neglect them or worse, or alter boys the priests pounced on.
There was a church in Africa where a bunch of wackos attacked and cut up a number of congregation members. My thinking is the people in the Church were not as evil as the ones doing the cutting.
Sometimes life tears people down when they haven’t had a chance to be evil yet.
There is more to this than meets the eye…..
I agree Ich… it seems to be an overgeneralization, but if you dig really deep there is the thought that circumstance does not determine the experience of joy. As difficult as it is to understand… there is personal testimony among the persecuted that joy is present even among the persecuted…
So I guess in some ways it becomes an issue of belief and its impact on the interpretation of fault…
In a much more generalized perspective, it seems human nature to not own up to their own bad choices that started the snow ball rolling and an unwillingness to do what it takes to stop the snowball prior to total collapse.
I find people are generally more willing to face their own poor choices and how they have contributed to their own unpleasant situations when instead of being isolated in the counterproductive browbeating of “all your fault!” they are supported and nurtured by the compassion of others who recognize the realities of corporate and societal responsibility as well, and help them trace effects back to causes there. That has been my experience. There has been far too much emphasis put on personal, individual responsibility when no man (or woman) is an island. It’s time to shift the balance back to where it belongs — to realizing the many other factors in the environment, events, circumstances, and interactions of others that have very much too played their parts.
As for demons — I was inhabited by them for 26 years. I know they are real. I’ve been delivered for just over a year and have learned a lot. I know I was not to blame for that situation, but I also know there were choices I made that probably contributed to it. I also know that given everything I was consciously aware of at the time, there is little chance I COULD have made better choices, because everything I knew of God and Christ had been hijacked by and subsumed under a subtle yet deadly legalism, false gospel and toxic soteriology, and I did not have sufficient “New Life” experience nor grounding in sound teaching to even have anything to compare that with to let me know it was the case. I could not have gotten out of that bondage if I tried, and I tried with everything I was worth. I eventually came to a place of complete inability to trust God, period, and that’s when they took over. Was this a choice on my part? Not at all. It was where I found myself. By then I didn’t have any choice — the volition is always the first thing to go.
Now, you can believe what you wish and defend your beliefs and your point here all you want, but I do ask one thing — do not attack me personally on the point of my own experience nor try to suggest I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to MY OWN experience to do so. You didn’t live through it. I did. And I’ve heard all the snotty “devil made me do it, huh” comments before — I heard that crap for 26 years and all I could think was yeah, and you wouldn’t survive one hour in my shoes, bud. Not trying to be hostile or defensive here, just saying — there are situations in which your points here are very valid and probably rule the day but not every situation is alike, and if we go for any kind of “one size fits all” routine we end up judging people — very bad choice, that.
Moriah… thank you for your comments.. That is an incredible testimony! I love your pointing out that it is your own experience and not my right to judge. I totally agree with you. It is the same attitude I have about my experience with Christ. It is mine and not available for another’s judgement of validity…
Again. Thank you for your comments… I have read them several times… very insightful… God bless! Press on!