Evil

We had a great message delivered at Northbrook Church today. It was all about evil. Evil is here. Like it or not, evil is here.

The passage was from Daniel 7:1-28 and packed a powerful punch. David dreamed of evil. Evil took the form of beasts in his dream, beasts that were like a lion, a bear, and a leopard. All of these are beasts of prey that roam around waiting to attack and kill.

Listening to the message today really had me pondering some things that bloggled my mind.

Evil is here and always roaming, waiting to attack and kill. The attacking and killing take place in the spiritual realm, in the unseen world, not our physical one.

Many times we don't even see the evil until we are attacked by it and then we have to react. Reacting puts us on the defensive immediately.

Christians should always have on their spiritual armor as Ephesians 6 states:

13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Christians "fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace" should never be caught off-guard. We should not ever need to react to an attack of the evil one, we should be ready and armed for battle at all times!

We know evil lurks waiting to devour. We should not be surprised when the attack occurs!

This is where I got to thinking...what do you do when evil confronts you face to face? When you are standing there with evil staring you in the face? Looking you in the eye? At that moment when evil attacks, what do you do?

YOU STARE EVIL IN THE FACE, LOOK IT IN THE EYE, AND SAY GET BEHIND ME SATAN!

Evil is here, yes, but we already have the victory. The war has already been won. There are battles raging, those are the "attacks" I speak of, but the war is won. What makes evil that much more frightening is that the evil one knows that the war for him is already lost, so why not pull out all the stops? It's a game for him. A taunting game, with the goal to keep people from knowing God. If he can ruin the testimony of one, it can effect the souls of many.

If he can ruin the testimony of one, it can effect the souls of many.

But, the war is already won. God is in control. Jesus Christ looked evil in the eye, even as He hung dying on a tree. He died and was buried, but then took his life back up again, and in essence said, "GET BEHIND ME SATAN!" as he emerged from his tomb. Death, evil, has no power over Christ. God is the winner! God rules!

Jesus never turns his back on us, sometimes he may look away from our sin, but never, NEVER, has his back turned toward us. That means we stand, bow, lay prostrate before Him, we are IN FRONT of Him. He stands and looks at us.

If we are in front of Him, where is satan? Satan is BEHIND HIM! Satan has no authority over Jesus Christ, over the Son of Man, over the Ancient of Days!

God wins and God rules the world!