It’s one thing to read a book about kayaking and quite another to put your kayak into the water, climb in, and start paddling.

It’s exactly the same with evil. Book knowledge or any other form of second-hand knowledge takes you only so far.

The fact is that you don’t really know what evil is like until you collide with it.

But educating yourself on evil before you collide with it definitely blunts the wounds and overall shock and definitely protects you from any lasting damage.

This article educates you on how evil actually takes place in your everyday world.

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The very first thing you need to know about how evil takes place is that, contrary to what you might believe, human beings are NEVER the source of evil. 

They are only USED by the source.

The SOURCE is ALWAYS Satan.

PLEASE always remember this.

It makes all the difference in the world as to how you deal with evil in your life.

It means that your boss, spouse, neighbour or whoever is inflicting serious damage on you is NOT your enemy.

They are only being USED by your enemy.

Your enemy is ALWAYS Satan.

This is critical because it means that the persons whom you should be fighting are NOT the humans he is using, but Satan!

This in no way means that you condone the evil behaviour of the perpetrators.

You stand your ground against them; but you do not engage in a battle with them.

That simply escalates the evil and does you great harm (See Part 6 The Healthy Way to Fight Evil coming soon).

From my personal experience of confronting severe, organized evil in the last 39 years, it would seem that there are two kinds of evil.

First, there’s evil that manifests itself in exclusively supernatural ways.

Second, there’s evil that uses people to carry out its destructive purposes.

In my first experience of evil, I experienced evil in an exclusively supernatural form —as terrifying nightmares in which, for 3 consecutive nights, I came face to face with the person of Satan himself. As I stood on my faith, the nightmares ended abruptly. But an experience of genuine fear, combined with a feeling of losing control, took over for several weeks.

The Lord himself had to heal me of this. 

In my second experience of evil, however, evil showed up in an exclusively human form, using specific human beings to accomplish its dark purposes.

On this occasion, although the evil I faced was even fiercer and more prolonged, I experienced no fear or loss of control whatever, because the Lord had used my first confrontation with supernatural evil not just to heal me but to teach me in detail how to combat evil with confidence, not losing my peace and joy and health in the process.

Both forms of evil, supernatural and human, share the same supernatural source i. e. Satan. 

And, in the everyday world in which we live, human beings experience both types of manifestations of evil.

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There are 2 main ways for us humans to get caught up in the web that evil spins.

The first way is caused by the seeds of evil that reside within each and every one of us. 

The second way is to get caught up in other people’s evil.

This article looks at examples of how evil actually works, how it carries out its damage, in the real, everyday lives of all people —Christians, non-Christians, and people of no religious faith whatever.

You might wonder why Satan chooses to attack ALL human beings, including people of no faith whatever.

This is because ALL human beings, regardless of their religion or lack of it, are made in God’s image.

And this angers the Devil —which is why he’s after us all, regardless of our religious faith or our lack of it!

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When I read about or listen to persons who have got caught in the tragic cross-hairs of human or supernatural evil and who ‘cannot understand’ what’s befallen them; or when I hear of people who seem committed to a sick lifestyle of harming other innocent persons without any regard for their own God-given consciences —I immediately ask myself the question:

‘Do these folks have any authentic understanding of supernatural and human evil?’

After following as much of their personal stories as I can, my conclusion too often is that they do not.

This tugs at my heartstrings, for I know that even a rudimentary understanding of evil could have saved them —and their loved ones —from the havoc, depravity and destruction wrought by the forces of evil in their lives, psyches, emotions, bodies, spirits and personal relationships.

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No God-loving and God-honouring human being wakes up one day and announces: ‘Today I will begin to inflict evil on people and/or God’s creation.’

Satan is FAR too subtle for that!

My two life experiences of having to confront fierce, highly organized, unusually persistent, and dangerous evil, as well as my intensive training in discerning evil, have borne this out.

The truth is that people can get sucked into the web of evil when they commit ‘small’ sins repeatedly, having no intention of acknowledging them, expressing sorrow to the Lord for them, or changing their ways with the Lord’s ready help.

Folk can also get pulled into evil’s web when…

• they keep making decisions (big and small) on impulse, rather than by taking time to seek the wisdom of God and of friends who are His followers

• they try to rationalize or pretend away what they know in the depths of their conscience is morally wrong

• they allow themselves to gravitate towards keeping regular company with people who don’t honour and respect God, or themselves, or their fellow human beings

• they make selfish decisions based only on their own narrow self-interest

• they choose to ignore the fact that their decisions might/will harm others

• they repeatedly ignore or bury those little nudges deep in their soul that point them away from wrongdoing and in the direction of what is loving, moral and life-giving

• they allow their conscience to fall in line with their desires, rather than make sure that their desires fall in line with their conscience

As a result, it becomes progressively easier for them to effectively bury their God-given conscience.

This repeated abuse of their God-given conscience gives Satan much helpful fodder to work with.

Eventually, the time might come when they pretend to themselves that evil doesn’t really exist at all.

This spells real trouble.

No one should ever cheat themselves of God’s grace by pretending that evil doesn’t exist.

This is exactly the opposite of how the Lord intends their conscience to work: which —ALWAYS —is to direct them towards those things that bring them 

• • • life
    • joy
    • peace

If you and I continue to ignore the danger signs sent us by our God-given conscience, our conscience will become s-l-o-w-l-y dulled.

 

Eventually, it will be unable to warn you and me of the very real dangers to our security and wellbeing that are lurking right around the corner!

The Frog in Hot Water

It’s here that the analogy of the frog in hot water is telling. 

The frog that is taken out of his healthy, life-sustaining environment and put into hot water will jump back out immediately.

But the frog that is put into cold water that is then slowly heated up will remain in the water, and thus meet his death —after much suffering!

The frog’s gradual acclimatization to the heat of the water compromises its God-given ability to sense danger.

As a result, the frog literally gets cooked.

It suffers acutely in the process. 

Exactly the same thing can happen with us human beings. 

If we continue to ignore the danger signs sent us by our God-given conscience, our conscience will become slowly dulled.

Eventually, it will be unable to warn us of the grave dangers that are waiting for the first opportunity to strike. 

As a result, we will be cooked alive like the frog.

We will be devoured by evil.

And, like the frog, we will suffer acutely in the process!

In the media, and sometimes even in our own social circles, we often hear about human beings who seem to have ‘suddenly’ changed from law-abiding or even God-fearing individuals into people whom their friends can no longer recognize, people who severely harm or totally destroy innocent people with little, if any, remorse.

Bu the fact is that the explanation for these folks’ metamorphosis from apparently good to clearly evil people might be far simpler than we might at first believe —when we remember the frog in hot water. 

Nothing and No One is off Limits for Satan

As far as Satan is concerned, nothing and no one is off limits.

The Devil makes no apologies for the indiscriminate mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and material havoc he inflicts on humans.

In the Devil’s eyes …

• • • individuals
    • families
    • communities
    • schools
    • hospitals
    • governments
    • religions
    • nations

are all fair game.

It is, therefore, essential that

• • • no person
    • family
    • group
    • community
    • school
    • government
    • institution
    • nation

 should for one second think themselves to be somehow out of Satan’s reach. 

Followers of Christ need to be especially aware of Satan’s purposes. He might well reserve his most subtle traps for us!

This makes complete sense, because it is Christ and his followers who are Satan’s most hated and despised enemies. It is their downfall that brings Satan most satisfaction.

Be alert and of sober mind.

Your enemy the devil prowls around

Like a roaring lion

Looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8 NIV

                                                                                

The Example of Jesus’ Friend, Peter

Let’s take a look at how Satan trapped Peter, a close and loving friend and follower of the Lord, and the intense suffering this brought him (Luke 22:31 – 34; 54 – 62).

How did Satan trap Peter?

First, Satan put into Peter’s heart an exaggerated confidence in his own human strength. 

Peter genuinely believed that, if asked whether he knew Jesus, he would be able to admit boldly that he did indeed know Jesus (Luke 22:33)!

As a result of this exaggerated self-confidence, Peter completely ignored Jesus’ warning (see Luke 22:34)!

Second, Satan trapped Peter by playing to Peter’s fears when he found himself in a life-or-death situation.

When asked if he was a friend of Jesus, Peter suddenly realized the high price he might have to pay for admitting that he was.

As a result, Peter became engulfed in fear!

Satan had successfully trapped Peter.

The result was that Peter denied three times that he had ever known Jesus (Luke 22: 57 - 60)!

By speaking a lie, Peter separated himself momentarily from the Source of Love and Life.

Lies and Truth can never stand together.

When Jesus looked directly at His close and beloved friend just moments after he had succumbed to Satan’s trap, Peter ‘went out, and wept bitterly’ (Luke 22:62 KJV).

Peter immediately understood the trap of evil into which he had fallen.

In separating himself momentarily from the Source of Love and Life, Peter experienced an inner death.

He became the walking dead.

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Watch out for Part 5 of this series coming soon. 

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