Monday 18 July 2016

Overcome Evil With Good

Scripture: 1 Peter 3 v 12 - 16: "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.  
13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?  
14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;  
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ."

We are living in strange and dangerous times where we are witnessing the rise of the Antichrist, whose nature is rebellion, lawlessness, anarchy, hate, murder, tension, and absolute evil.  This is the very opposite of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5 v 22-23, which is the nature of Jesus Christ.  Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control.

The desire of every Christian is to be like Jesus and the more the fruit of the Spirit grows within you, the more you become like Him.  It is called sanctifying the Lord God in your hearts.  As we get closer to the end of this age the divide between good and evil gets wider and wider.  
Our God looks to see if we are able to overcome the darkness by walking in His light.  This has to be a deliberate act of our will and the intention of our heart.  We must stay close in our relationship with Jesus to achieve it.  

When the fruit of righteousness grows it's because we are cultivating it and feeding it with the Word of God and spending time in His presence.  The Pharisees noted changes in the disciples of Jesus.  They said, These men have been with Jesus.  The closer we get to Him the more of His nature shines through us.  We participate in His wisdom and are able to minister goodness to those who have done evil things.

One day a man came to see me for personal prayer.  He was trembling with guilt and shame.  He said God can never forgive me for the evil I have done.  I assured him that if we confess our sins and repent (change our mind and attitude) He will remove it as if it never happened.  He told me that he had been one of the people who had gassed thousands of Jews in  Germany during WW2.  He had pulled the lever that released the sarin gas that killed them. He heard them calling on God, even on Jesus to save them, then silence.  It had haunted him day and night ever since.

He had to overcome the fear of God's vengeance and forgive himself for the innocent lives he had ended.  He did find peace that day and was able to accept God's love.  As Jesus said on the Cross, Father forgive them, they know not what they do.

I have recently had a call from someone who has been subjected to a life-long torment of serious emotional and mental undermining from an atheist father.  We prayed together and declared to that Antichrist spirit in his father, that through the Blood of Jesus, you have no power over me.  There was complete release of stress and self-condemnation.  We praised the Lord for the overcoming of evil by good.

So no matter what the enemy has put in front of you, through Jesus you have authority over it.  Command it to be as a mountain thrown into the sea.  Rebuke whatever it has done to you.  Reject every subliminal accusation and stand on the promises of God.  No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper says the Lord God Almighty!  But you must do your part to overcome it.

Prayer: Heavenly Father,  it is essential that we learn to overcome evil, but not by doing anything evil in return.  Vengeance is Your ability to deal with those who hurt us.  We can only deal with the evil spirit that torments, defiles or threatens us by casting it out as Jesus taught us.  Help us get this right because it will bring us peace and joy, and we will be able to help others to overcome as well.  In Jesus' name. Amen.