{Part 1 of 2}
I was researching the word evil in scripture.
Even just saying the word can put one on edge. We say the word and suddenly feel danger in the air. We expect an instant visitation from… (whispers) you-know-who. 😈
But I’m not scared anymore.
I mean, for one, I think I have lived with you-know-who extensively. I think he might have possessed any (and every?) boyfriend I have ever had.
I don’t even capitalize his name anymore. I go out of my way to undo spell check which continues to capitalize you-know-who, but keeps trying to lower case God. I wonder if spellcheck is possessed…
And evil is not anywhere on the same level as God. Everyone always acts like Everything is equal to nothing. Actually, they’re not equal at all. They’re opposites.
Everything ≠ nothing
One is dark. The other is light.
I have decided — and heard from Catholic priests — that the demons we imagine, painted in our imagination by Hollyweird, are actually, contrary to popular belief, tiny little gross dwarf spirits. They’re like smelly gas. And they’re small.
And we — humans, given the authority over the entirety of this earth upon our creation in the likeness of our Creator — have full power to tell these demons to screw off.
Unless, of course, they’re in your boyfriend… which is unfortunate.
I was casting demons out of my boyfriend for two years until I came across the scripture:
Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.
Matthew 12:45
It did seem to get worse, so, I quit.
And it is amazing to me how two people can live under the same roof and experience two totally different realities — one in heaven and one in hell. You can guess which one he was in and which one I choose. Hell is more like fear and panic than having fun. While heaven is peaceful, and sometimes giggly.
I spent so many years researching the good words and their connection to other words. Words like Grace. Or Faith. Or God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit.
Those are really good words.
And they have engendered a light that shines over my life and draws me forward.
But lately I have been getting into this habit of just being with God. Like, sitting with Him. Not trying to mine Him for His knowledge — which He loves sharing . Not to get Him to give me a to-do list that I can check off. I have sensed that He wants me to just be with Him and for me to feel His love for me. The experience has been so… overwhelming that I have been crying a lot lately. Feeling the enormity of his grace and forgiveness when I leave so much to be desired on my end.
And in this state of being, He gave me a gift this morning. I woke up with the realization that evil — the word, the state — isn’t necessarily the sneaky, nefarious, wanting to do people wrong for the fun of it stereotype.
It is the absence of faith.
It is fear. It is sadness. Sorrow, pity.
It is feeling sorry for yourself that you can’t follow your dreams like so-and-so because you aren’t good enough. Because you don’t have the degree. Because you just can’t for eight million reasons.
True. All the reasons are true.
But God.
What if God would do everything through you? You’re not even really doing it?
There’s a million scriptures that point to this… (okay, maybe a million is an exaggeration, but there’s a lot):
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden light.
Matthew 11:30
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.
Ephesians 3:16
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
You are the light of the world.
Matthew 5:14
And I could keep going… But I’ll have to keep going tomorrow. I have a lot more confidence and power to take big risks today, because I am working in His supernatural power.
Join me tomorrow as I wrap up this discussion that will give you a lot of hope for shining your light.
