Educating yourself on the basic facts of evil is a holy, generous, loving, and noble thing to do —both for yourself and for your loved ones.

Why?

Because you

• won’t be able to resist Satan’s temptations and assaults if you can’t recognize and identify the person behind them 

• won’t be able to neutralize and defeat evil if you’re not familiar with Satan’s tactics

• will suffer needless personal pain unless you know how to neutralize and overcome evil

There are 4 main points to understand about evil: 

• God became man precisely in order to destroy Satan’s works:

But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:8 New Living Translation ((My emphasis)

• God has given you ALL YOU NEED to defeat and be victorious over ALL evil 

• The Lord does NOT want you to fear evil!

• The Lord DOES, however, want you to recognize the REALITY of evil and not pretend it away!

I’ve written this 10-Part series to help you

1. Understand why it’s necessary to know what evil is, how to recognize it, and how it works

2. Know what to do when you have to deal with evil in any form in your own life or in the lives of those dearest to you

3. Understand the importance of maintaining your inner peace and joy  when faced with evil.

4. Learn a simple yet guaranteed way of praying that empowers you to do this —not just once or twice or 3 times but whenever you wish or need to.

These Articles Explore…

This article series explores:

• the prime reasons for educating yourself on evil
• what Jesus said about evil
• how Jesus dealt with evil
• 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 faith
• your very first step to truly understanding exactly why evil is so horrific
• why you must avoid evil at all costs
• what happens when you don’t

 

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Part 1:

When Your Paradise Becomes a Mini-Hell

Let’s Play ‘Pretend’

Let’s play ‘pretend’ for a few minutes.

Let’s imagine that you’re enjoying your mid-morning cup of coffee.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the cooling breezes are blowing. And, in a few minutes, you’re going to go outside to do what you love —a bit of gardening.

Just before you skip joyfully through the garden door, new garden shears and fertilizer in hand, you stop by your mailbox.

Inside you find a letter addressed to you. The handwriting is excitingly familiar. You know the sender well.

You tear it open and start reading.

Suddenly, your heart stops… one of your best friends tells you that she doesn’t trust you any more because, because, because…

You can’t believe what you’re reading.

You start to feel like a leaden weight has descended.

Your peace and joy flee.

Confusion sets in.

Suddenly, the world, and the people in it, don’t seem friendly any more.

As for your gardening…well, what’s the point now?

You’re upset to the core.

You shan’t be able enjoy it.

You slump into a chair.

What to do?

All of a sudden, the phone rings.

It’s another friend to say that your best friend, the one who wrote you the disastrous letter, has been telling others in your circle what an awful person you are.

Get the drift?

Evil, you see, stops at nothing —IF you let it.

You see, evil never sends you a telegraph.

It arrives unannounced, often when you’re least expecting it, right on your doorstep.

So… unless you have a guaranteed, sound, constructive strategy ready for dealing with evil, you will quickly become its victim —and you will suffer.

Satan is the origin of the evil you’ve just experienced.

He has succeeded easily in your case because he’s caught you unawares.

That’s what he enjoys doing.

So …he’s succeeded in upsetting beyond belief yet another woman of God.

He’s achieved his goal.

And now he’s grinning from ear to ear with sublime delight.

But Satan has no intention of leaving the matter there.

He will now work on the fact that you are upset and confused to drive you into even deeper negative emotions!

Soon, you find yourself projecting your upset, confusion and anger on to

• your spouse
• your children
• perhaps later on, your work colleagues

They are all appalled —confused, and extremely upset.

Your family members slink away to their rooms.

The happy, after-work family-hour that you’d been looking forward to so much has now suddenly vanished.

It’s gone up in smoke before your very eyes.

In the space of less than one short hour, your joyful paradise has become a dark hell.

Satan has done the 2 things he’s so competent at.

He has

• blind-sided you
• robbed you of your inner peace and joy Satan’s trademark signs announcing the presence of evil in your home are here for everyone to see —everyone, that is, who is knowledgeable about his methods:
• confusion (a lack of inner peace)
• destruction (a lack of inner peace AND joy)
• lies (an attack on your soul)

What to do?

                  

Now let’s pretend one more time …

Same scenario.

Totally different response.

Joyful and peaceful outcome!!

So …what accounts for the difference?

Simply that you’ve educated yourself on the basics of evil.

You’ve educated yourself on how to recognize evil before it has the chance to harm you and your loved ones.

You’re knowledgeable about evil’s methods.

You’re completely prepared for evil’s unannounced arrival on your doorstep.

You’ve learned how to deal constructively with evil in any form, at any time, in such a way as to maintain —not lose —your (AND your family’s!) inner peace and joy.

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Understanding the Basics About Evil

Welcome to this 10-part article series on understanding the basics about evil.

A single article would not begin to do justice to this topic which is so vital for Christian women, and would serve only to confuse and mislead rather than provide clarity.

There are many facets to understanding the danger posed by the supernatural force of evil and the utter destruction it is capable of doing, and does do, to people in general and to Christians in particular.

Understanding each facet of evil is vital to protecting yourself from its destruction and to ultimately overcoming it.

It’s also vital to maintaining your inner peace and joy  at all times.

I’m writing this 10-Part series to help you

1. understand evil
2. know what to do when you have to deal with evil in your own life or the lives of those dearest to you

Educating yourself on the basic facts of evil is a selfless and noble thing to do for both yourself and for your loved ones.

Why?

Because you

• won’t be able to resist Satan’s temptations and assaults if you can’t recognize and identify the person behind them

•  won’t be able to neutralize and defeat evil if you’re not familiar with Satan’s tactics

• will suffer enormous damage unless you know how to neutralize and overcome evil

What These Articles Look At

These articles look at

• the prime reasons for educating yourself on evil
• what Jesus said about evil and how He dealt with it
• 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 faith
• your very first step to truly understanding exactly why evil is so horrific
• why you must steer clear of evil at all costs
• what happens if you don’t

Dealing Successfully with Evil

Doesn’t Happen by Itself

Dealing competently and successfully with evil doesn’t happen by itself.

Neither will understanding evil happen by itself.

You need to educate yourself on the basics regarding this topic.

In addition, you need spiritual guidance from a person who understands this supernatural force not just intellectually and theologically but from raw personal experience; and who has also received special training in the ‘discernment’ of evil (i. e. how to recognize the telltale marks of evil at work).

I say this very humbly: I qualify on both scores. 

The Lord has allowed me to confront two highly organized and unusually persistent assaults by evil in my lifetime of 74 years. 

The first assault I experienced as a young married woman of 35. The Lord used it to lead me into a gradual but life-changing transformation.

The second assault came 12 years later when I was 48. It lasted for 7 full years. This time, I was able to use the lessons the Lord had taught me during my first experience of evil.

I came out of both assaults not only essentially unharmed, but more alive, and with much greater love, faith, peace and joy than I’d ever had before.

For this, I have just 2 two things to thank:

• knowing how to pray regularly from and with my heart 

• my education on the discernment of evil

Why Evil is Not a Myth, But a Very Real Threat to YOU

There are certain dangers that any self-respecting parent goes to great lengths to teach her children about.

Why?

Because parents love their kids.

They don’t want to see them harmed.

Fire is one of these ever-present dangers.

Here’s the thing.

It’s much easier to demonstrate to your children why fire is dangerous than to demonstrate to grown adults why evil is dangerous!

Why?

Because unlike fire, evil is never ‘in-your-face’.

Quite the contrary.

It’s extremely subtle.

Unlike fire, you can’t ‘see’ evil in action.

And, as I’ve already noted, evil never sends you a telegram to announce its arrival.

So… the only way you can recognize and identify the presence of evil in your or someone else’s life is by

• learning to recognize and identify its characteristic trademarks
• familiarizing yourself with its typical methods of operation
• understanding its ultimate purposes for humanity and for all of God’s creation

Here’s the thing, though.

You can only do this when you understand the depth of God’s LOVE for you.

You can’t understand the violence of evil until you understand exactly how much the Lord LOVES you.

And you won’t be able to truly understand how much God loves you until you discover how to spend regular time in His presence each day. 

For it’s in God’s presence, you see, that you come to experience His love!

Satan is dead-set on DESTROYING GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES.

This is the devil’s overarching goal.

Satan does not want any part of God’s creation to thrive or even exist.

He knows that by destroying God’s LOVE for His people, he can achieve this.

So … Satan will use any and every tactic to get between you and the Lord’s LOVE for you.

The Majority of Folks, at Least in the Western World, Seem Intent on Remaining Ignorant about Evil

In my experience, the majority of folks —at least in the Western

world —seem intent on remaining ignorant about evil.

In fact, I believe this is one of the top reasons that our world is so fraught with friction.

Everywhere you look, there is actual war or the threat of war.

Among families, there is ongoing strife and even physical violence.

Very sadly, I have found that Christians, too, are largely ignorant about even the basics about evil and how it works.

Yes, it’s perfectly true that Christians recognize the existence of evil.

They would say, I’m sure, that they ‘believe’ in it.

Yet their belief would seem to take the form of an intellectual, theological concept.

That’s not nearly enough if they are to deal with evil effectively. 

That won’t ultimately protect them from evil.

I believe that one of the reasons they stick to an intellectual concept of evil is, at least in part, because they fear it.

And they fear evil because they don’t understand it.

When you understand evil, you very much respect the reality of its power and intelligence —but you no longer fear it.

There is a world of difference between these two.

The Lord Does NOT Want You to Fear Evil

The Lord does not want you to fear evil.

In John 10:14, Jesus explains that He protects you from the ‘wolf’ i. e. Satan.

He explains, nevertheless, that He does want you to understand, respect, and acknowledge its reality and the huge harm it does you (John 10:10, 12 -13 NIV).

He knows from His own exhausting experience that Satan is most definitely a reality that must be confronted (Matthew 4: 1 – 11).

He wants you to understand evil’s power, determination, and intelligence.

This is why He teaches you to pray to the Father that He will deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:13).

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Note

Watch out for Part 2 of this series.

 

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