Henry - Welcome back. We've had many discussions about discernment. But  one of the key things of discernment in the discernment literature is the  discernment of evil. So there's something gritty about life. Gritty is means there's something like pretty practical, something that includes a lot of issues. And let's  talk about you and I are sinners. Okay, you and I are saved but you and I are still tempted, right. And we're involved in spiritual warfare. We know that from the  Ephesians 6, our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual  powers. We also see in II Corinthians 10:3, For though we live in the world we  do not wage war as the world does. For back to Ephesians 6:12, For our  struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the  authorities against the powers of this dark world against the spiritual forces of  evil in the heavenly realms. It's as if Steve, we talked about all of this  discernment, moral discernment, relationship, discernment. And yet, there's still  one more discernment. There's the earth we live in, then there's the discernment of how to live here, then there's a spiritual world discernment that we must also  deal with.  

Steve – Right. And evil is, like, we know what evil is, if you just go back to  Genesis, that it's subtle, I mean, if evil was just obvious, like, here's the cliff, if  you step off from this cliff, you're gonna fall 1000 feet to your death, as you can  see, it is obvious, right? But even even remember, the serpent comes to Eve  and says, Did God really say that? is very subtle. And the devil is the father of  lies so it's not always that obvious. And that's why you have to decide, is this  evil? Or is this something I, something I just want is it a good thing? Is is, the  devil is is, you know, people will, I remember someone coming to me after five  years of marriage, and they want a divorce, and I'm talking to him, and what  about your vows and all of that? And finally, what about God, you promised  some things in front of God, they looked at me and said, would God want me to  be unhappy. So in other words, now, that's a subtle evil thought, right? The devil  was like, God wouldn't want you to be unhappy, God is about love. And God is  about this verse is things exists for your goodness, and your pleasure and your  benefit. And this is hurting you. So God wouldn't want you to be hurt. Right? So  it's very subtle. So that's why we need a little discernment on Well, what is evil?  What is the Devil? 

Henry - And reflecting on pastors and ministers, and you know, in various trips  throughout the world, and people and one that we've often have a lot of  downtime, so we'll talk, you know, share from our notes about some counseling  or some stories. It is always interesting to hear some of the stories as  experienced pastors can tell them, where they'll somebody will come to you and  their marriage is going pretty well. And Pastor, one day I went to work, and she  just been forward and my eyes caught her cleavage. You know, they're bringing 

your story. And I just had to have her. I fell in love right there. You know, it's like,  it isn't God a God of love. Right? I know, it's like boom, shoot in your foot,  marriage, children, all of that, or that boat? Or, or even like leaders, Christian  leaders, who shot themselves in the foot over, they're doing well in every area,  but this one area and the devil said, why don't you have that? 

Steve - Yeah, what you deserve? I mean, people don't understand what you've  been through the sacrifices you've made. Don't you deserve this?  

Henry - And even know, by talking about it, we'll probably get attacked by  something. I mean, there. Yeah, we shouldn't be arrogant. No, and then we We  laugh a lot about it. Because it almost is like, really, it's almost fascinating.  Right? That it happens.  

Steve - That's what happened to Moses. Moses took a wife and then brother, a  brother and sister were unhappy with him because he took that little perk. Right,  you know, and they thought he didn't deserve that. But Moses is, I've been  through a lot, you know?  

Henry - Uh, so, you know, Paul said like, I've got a thorn in my flesh, a  messenger of Satan that torments me. right. But then he comments. But when I am weak then I am strong. So this whole discernment of evil is probably very  important to do.  

Steve - So I identify demonic influence in ideas, people in organizations, you're  contending with demonic forces. I mean, evil is not just some rules that are  being broken. There's entities behind it. just like there are ministering angels  are also God allows them to still be in this world, we're victorious over them. And so it's personal. Evil is personal. It's not just evil out there. It's personal. And  that, that, that I love the story of demons going into the pigs story, Jesus comes  to an area and then the demons cry out don't hurt us. And then Jesus sends the  demons into these pigs 7000 Pigs run off and drown themselves to the river. And what that story illustrates is the intent of evil, right? The intent of the evil is to  destroy, destroy you, no matter, the smallest little lie or whatever it might be, the  goal of evil is to destroy you. So knowing that it's personal, devil and all his  demons, they, their goal is to hurt you to hurt your marriage hurt your family. And so to discern, you know, his movements, it's like counter intelligence. You know,  we need to be savvy about what's going on so that we can fight against it.  

Henry - Then finally, is interesting in Mark, where Peter, close to Jesus, when  Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, and rebuked Peter, Get behind Me,  Satan, he said, you don't have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. 

So when I first read that years and years ago, the First Minister, I felt like this  doesn't seem right. Yeah, because Peter is the pillar of the church. Yeah. Does  that seem right? I mean, but it helps us right, it is personal. Even Satan tempted  Jesus, right. And he used all of these, like alluring propositions, like, I will give  you this world.  

Steve – He wants to poke you at your weakest, or whatever your Achilles heel  might be, because Jesus was hungry, right? He had, right he, he had been in  the desert fasting 40 days, 40 nights. And so here's the weakness. I'm going to  explain. So imagine what the devil is doing in your mind. Where's your  weakness and Where's he going to poke? Right? So that's part of the discerning process is What are my weaknesses? Where, where is the wall low in my  fortress? Where I might expect, so if you're, for example, if your marriage is not  good, guess what the devil is going to do? go after your marriage, go after your  relationship with your children. And let's say, you right now you're having a  problem with church and you're not really going to church anymore. Because the last thing was a bad experience. Guess what? The devil is going to keep you  from church and that your problems at home will come on Sunday morning,  right? To keep you from going. And the first church you try out, it's gonna have  something that pushes your buttons and then you're gonna go maybe I don't  need church. You can count on the devil poking you where you're vulnerable,  

Henry - It's interesting. CS Lewis. Just recently, my wife and I watched like two  documentaries about CS Lewis and how he he was caught up in nor nor Norse  myths. And well read well books on medieval all of this philosophy and what not  

in literature. And in Tolkien was constantly ministering to him, and who wrote  The Lord of the Rings, work the Lord of the Rings, because Tolkien was a  believer. And then Tolkien said, to CS or Clive or I think he called him Jack,  Jack, every myth find its truth in Jesus Christ. Okay, so that's came at two in the  morning on one of their long discussion. And it's through that one sentence  really that CS Lewis, every myth, this is what Tolkien said. He said, there's a lot  of myths written and a lot of, you know, religious backgrounds, but there's  always a desire for God. There's the desire for redemption, there's desire for  resurrection, but he said the Jesus Christ story is the true story. It's where the  same was factually evil, every myth has evil in it and Jesus defeated the devil.  And Tolkien, Tolkien kept talking at some point CS Lewis, the Holy Spirit put in  his heart, that's true. It's interesting. What was the first book he wrote was  Screwtape Letters. And I've often said that to new believers, get ready, or even  people who start at Christian Leaders Institute, get ready if you dare to do  something for God, but this is what I don't say don't get ready. But if you want  evidence that there is a God, wait till you get attacked. Right. And that's what  happened to CS Lewis. Right? 

Steve - So how do you actually discern evil? Well, there's some ways to discern  evil, like negative consequences. You you do the wrong thing, and you get hurt.  Okay, that's the simplest. Remember, we talked about common sense?  

Henry and Steve - Yeah. It's all in other words, chaos is sort of the work of the  fall, evil. Evidence, you're going down the wrong trail. So that's a simple there  may not be demonic forces there. But negative consequences, telling you you're going on the wrong trail. You employ sarcasm in your relationship with your wife  and see what happened. Yeah. The things of God grow dim. Okay, right. So so  the more you go down the evil trail, the less God is real, the less God you can  see God in your life, the less you even care about it. Right? When God is close,  and you morally fail, or you sin you feel that. When God is not close, you morally fail, right, you don't even think about it, right. So in other words, if you're feeling  bad, right, that's kind of a good sign. It means that you're alive. Like feelings are  if you feel pain you have hope. It means that God is important to you, otherwise, you wouldn't feel bad. that unbalanced desire. What's the meaning of that? So  yeah, I suppose that means all the all the food, let's say, you know, I mean, right, much. Like the senses go out of control, again, it's the way God designed it into  some ways, we've been designed for moderation, you know, that's fine.  

Steve - But you know, I have a bowl of ice cream. When I'm done with that bowl  of ice cream. I want one more, you know, I want I want more. But when I take  more, it's not as satisfying, right? It doesn't, it doesn't really give me more. And  so that's what unbalanced desire is, if you want more than which is actually  beneficial for you, and then you have no self control, and then it goes awry. So if you're always getting sick, that means maybe your your desires are out of  whack. And the devil does that. He builds on it, even you have something good,  why not more? Right?  

Henry - You know, one thing we appreciate about our religions, our Christian  background was moderation. And it really kept us out of trouble. In many ways,  there's the Ecclesiastes passage, I think it's in chapter seven about, you know,  don't be over holy or over wicked, the one who fears God avoid extremes now,  that was not how I was raised. My dad used to say about moderation, that it's a  safe place to be so say in drinking so I saw my dad have one beer. We live near  Wisconsin are we in Wisconsin there Milwaukee where but all my friends family  they drink a lot of beer. Now is interesting. Now getting me you may choose  never to drink any alcohol you may be an alcoholic, so I don't want to get but I  noticed that you know, never drive never have like all these rules in place for like one beer. So moderation in unbalanced is to blow that moderation. And just say,  Oh, whatever, right? 

Steve and Henry - Today we live in a day of excess and availability. It used to be fruits were available in their season, right. But now with the whole world  economy, the fruits come from everywhere and anywhere. And so everything is  available. Every anywhere, anytime, but do people enjoy it as much? I mean, I  remember when it was strawberry season, it was only like a few weeks. And that was the greatest two weeks of your life. Right? And then they were gone. And  then the next year they came back again, or peach season or Apple season or  whatever it might be. The celebration of Christmas, once a year, we bring up  those old carols and why don't why don't we get sick of them? Right? It's  because we only use them at that one time of the year. And so this idea of  moderation sometimes more is less is really Oh likes to go after. Excellent.  Yeah, so now he's gonna spoil it for you. Right now enemy live. Adam and Eve  lived a pretty moderate life. Yeah, did God really say, yeah. Yeah. You have the  whole world at your disposal. You want more? Don't you? Your spirit senses evil. Have you ever sensed evil?  

Steve - Yeah. I remember being in the Philippines being in a certain situation  where some witch doctor person or whatever. I'm just walking in and you feel a  darkness that heaviness. Right? A coldness even. Right.  

Henry - I remember one time early in ministry and was getting voids that come  pray with credit, Greg, because he's, he's really messed up. And so I remember  going to his apartment in Joliet, Illinois, and I felt the evil. And then he, he was  extremely erratic, and all these are things so then he asked me to pray for him.  And I actually didn't really want to and our seminary, they never talked about it  evil. But I remember praying with my eyes open. Lord. Greg says that he needs  to be removed of a demon. And I don't know if that's true. But if, all of a sudden  he started shaking, I felt the evil. And I prayed. And afterward made me sweat.  And afterwards he says any was free that day. And then he became a chauffeur.  And anytime I need to go to the airport, he'd pick me up for free. People like for  free. But I always gave him something but he never want anything because of  the gratitude for being released. And now I've never been one to look for a  demon under every rock and anyone who plays looks like the demon below me  to have a parking space of the mall or some flight, blaming every little thing in  your life. But over the years, I've seen cases where there is definitely  deliverance. And I have prayed deliverance prayers. And in our officiant, Minister class, we talk about some of these things in the prayers and everything. So  there is your spirit can sense evil. Some people do have special gifts, and I  believe but all of us must be aware of it prayer. Matthew 6:13. And Jesus even  puts us on our radar screen in the Lord's prayer. And lead us not into temptation,

which we talked about in this presentation, but deliver us notice from the evil  one. It's personal. It's personal, right.  

Steve - So discerning evil is not just evil, but discerning that there's an evil one,  right that someone wants your downfall. Someone wants your marriage to fall  apart. Someone wants your kids to rebel against you. Someone wants you to  gossip about somebody at work. Somebody wants you to talk negatively about  your pastor or the ministry going on in your church. Right. So resisting evil is  why do I want to go along with the one who wants all this destruction? Right.  

Henry - Well, very good topic. May God bless you as you discern evil in discern  in such a way as to bring blessing to yourself. Glory to God and love to your  neighbor.



Última modificación: viernes, 6 de octubre de 2023, 07:22