Swept Clean

I suppose it’s not just okay to tell someone that you don’t like them. Imagine going up to people and telling them in their faces that you don’t like them. I shudder to think how it would be received. How would I receive it if it was me? I don’t really think that it is the person that is not likeable. It is the spirit behind, or inside of the person that causes that person’s behaviour. I think that because every person has a place in them for a spirit, there must be some kind of spirit in everyone. Because there are only two kinds of spirits, the Holy Spirit of God, and evil spirits from the devil, it will be either of these that will be present in people.

Luke 11: 24-26, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

Matthew 12:43-45, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

This parable says that when an evil spirit is driven out of a person, there is a void which has to be filled. If it is not filled then the void is open for the evil spirit to return, but it will not return by itself, it will bring with it 7 other spirits more evil than itself. If that void isn’t filled with the Holy Spirit that person is going to be in much more trouble than when he started out. This also tells me that people cannot walk around with nothing inside that space that wants a spirit residing in it. And it’s not a matter of believing that there is a God or believing that the devil exists. As far as the bible is concerned this is what it is. I speculate that if someone is a good person, but he isn’t a believer, there will be some kind of spirit in him which isn’t very wicked.

John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Here Jesus was speaking to Jews, not Gentiles who had never even heard of God. These were supposed to be God’s chosen people.

Luke 1:15, For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while he was in his mother’s womb. What an amazing thing to happen. I am assuming that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit from conception because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes people behave in certain ways because they are being influenced by the devil. It doesn’t necessarily make them bad people, they are people who are being misled. Christians should pray for discernment so that they can recognize what is going on and make a difference in their lives.

What I’m getting at is that we shouldn’t just judge a book by its cover. It is quite possible that a person could be under the influence of some spirit and we should rather love people so that they can start to see the Holy Spirit in us, than judge them and spoil all our chances of winning their soul for the Kingdom.

 

Knowledge

There have been some very dark happenings in our community lately. There is a lot of depression. There is a lot of despair. There are people who always answer you with, “I suppose I shouldn’t complain” when you enquire about how they are. I like to put on a happy face when people ask me how I am too because I like to think positive and I believe that speaking negatively doesn’t help anyone. But tonight I’m wondering if we should always do the ‘put on a brave face’ thing. Should people think that everything is fine? Are we a society of fake people? Do we shy away from people who wear their heart on their sleeve and complain when they feel bad? Do we shun people who are negative because we see things on Facebook that say you must cut negative people out of your life. Only surround yourself with positive people because positivity rubs off on you and all that jargon.

Are we allowing social media to tell us how to live or are we going to book that the Creator of the Universe gave us and looking at what it says.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Verse 12 says something that is so profound, “My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.” God was speaking to the Jews. His people. Not a heathen nation. How far are we from the truth? How far do we have to look to know how far we are from the truth? We can just pick up our phones and log into social media to see exactly how far we have strayed from the truth, or rather how far we’ve always been from the truth. Do we see a pretty picture with a saying something like, “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.” Nothing wrong with that is there? Sounds really great so we like it and share it. That’s a Buddha quote. What about this one? When you truly care for someone, their mistakes never change your feelings because it’s the mind that gets angry but the heart still cares.” That’s Radhekrishna. “The mind is fickle. It won’t obey you. Every time the mind misbehaves, use your discretionary intellect to bring it back to the equanimous position.” That’s apparently a Hindu quote. It sounds really great, although I can’t even figure out what it means. Either we do not use the knowledge we have of what is in the Bible, or we don’t know what is in the Bible, when we allow these seemingly innocent sayings to start corrupting our minds. We might as well be inquiring from a stick what our futures are going to be.

I believe that a big part of the problem is that there are deceiving spirits all around us who are whispering all kinds of untruths to us and we listen to them because we don’t spend enough time in the scriptures. John 8:44 says that the devil is the father of lies. 2 Corinthians 11:12 – 14, Paul is speaking about false apostles. “And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as the we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deed.”

That is aimed at people who are pretending to be doing God’s work, but are misleading people. If the devil can pretend to be good how are we going to be able to know who is good and who is bed? How are we going to know which social media post is a quote from the Bible and which one comes from a different religion altogether? How are we going to know which thoughts that enter our minds come from the Holy Spirit and which ones come from evil spirits? We aren’t going to know if we aren’t actually physically reading our Bibles and acquiring the knowledge that God wants us to have. The only way you get to know the author of the Book is when you read the Book. We need to be so versed in Scripture that we can’t be deceived by the enemy. We ought to be able to uplift and encourage the one’s who are struggling instead of avoiding them. Let’s do what 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says and start living the victorious life we are supposed to have, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”