WAKING UP TO THE REALITY OF EVIL

[Early last week this Sign of the Times came to me just as many of the past Signs of the Times and Watchman Warnings have come.  After I had written it down and considering the subject matter, I thought to hold it for distribution until after the joyous Christmas season had passed.  But now, after the events in Connecticut on last Friday, I see I should have sent it out immediately.  So I do now, with just a couple modifications.]
 

There is a great depression in the country right now.  I would suggest it is a gradual waking up to the realities of the times we are living in. 

 

For some time now I have sensed this great darkness all around.  All of this year, and especially in the late summer and early fall.  And it continues in an even darker mode.  This depression or darkness is actually settling over the land, and now those serious Christians who had not realized its presence so greatly in the past are having to come to grips with its reality. 

 

Yes, there really is evil on earth.  Yes, there really are evil people – lots of evil people.  Now as Paul wrote, our battle is not with flesh and blood but with all the forces of evil which he identifies as the rulers, the authorities, and the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  But of course in this physical environment in which we live, those evil forces usually play out through people who are led by and even dominated by such evil forces.  These are lost people who have not known God or the Bible or how to fight evil and protect themselves, and they are easy prey for satan and his forces.

Americans have for the most part lived their lives in a most extraordinary country, one that is modern and urbane and sophisticated and free and offers all sorts of opportunities.  So many have had very comfortable lives even though they have had to work hard in their jobs.  And they just haven’t often had to face obvious evil, except for those who have encountered criminals and terrorists or been sent off to war in a foreign land.

 

So most are just not so aware of evil.   A poll a couple years ago by George Barna even had the amazing finding that half of those saying they are Christians do not believe the devil is real.  Well, of course, that to me means they aren’t Christians, for Jesus talked about the devil at some length and warned about him and described him.  Not believing he is real is not believing. Jesus tells the truth.  And how then can Jesus be your Lord if you so believe?  He can’t.

 

But now those Americans are finding out evil is real.  They are going to discover the devil is real.

Residents of many countries have known evil is real for a long time.  Ask the residents of Romania about evil, or North Korea, or Afghanistan or Iraq, or Nigeria, or Rwanda, or Liberia, or those whose family members perished in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, or later those killed in the killing fields of Cambodia, or those currently in Mexico encountering the drug horror, or those dealing with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, or …well, you get the point.  All those places suffered under darkness, great darkness.

The USA has been protected I would suggest because of the core of Christian believers and God’s respecting and providing for them.  But the US has slid mightily.  There has been a great fall in morality, in civility, in decency, in integrity, and in faith in God.  There has been a falling away, an apostasy. 

Much of the world is way ahead in this falling away.  Europe for years has existed in a post Christian age.  Many countries in the world have lived under false gods and thus demonic influences for decades and hundreds of years.  Actually in some of these places today God is making breakthroughs.

But back to the USA – and recognizing evil.  We now have a highly non-godly intelligentsia, ruling government, entertainment community, news media, and more.  While there are still many who fear God and believe in him and the Bible, there at the high and visible levels of society are a group of lost people setting the agenda and culture and government policies and such. 

So there is a reason to be down, to feel depressed.  If you are you are probably sensing the spiritual darkness that has been growing here for some time.  You are just joining others in that realization.  We are on the steady path to the return of the Lord, and his timing will not be deterred.  It is an appointed time. 

Those who are pushing ever more to the gradual move to a one-world government and a universal religion are the ones to fear and stay away from.  Those doing the pushing really don’t know what they are doing, but they are pushing in the direction of the prophesied events of the end of the age. 

Yes, there really is evil on earth.  And not just obvious evil.  It also takes the forms of many leaders and media reporters and entertainers in our own country that in their way are just as dangerous to what once was an amazing place.

We can recognize and be saddened by evil in what we are seeing in our country and the world.  But still, we believers know that even though the presence of evil is increasing, it is all defeated by Jesus at Armageddon and thereafter as described in Revelation 19 and 20 and Zechariah 14. 

And we still know that the joy of the Lord is our strength.  So always, alwaysKeep Your Eyes on Jesus!

 

THE AMAZING PEOPLE OF OUR DAY

This may be difficult to read, but it also may help in your understanding the times in which we live.

Sometime in the last month or so I was reading the writings of Smith Wigglesworth, the great preacher and healer of the early 1900’s. He was recounting how for years he and his wife had had a church mission in England. One day while away from there he had attended a service and had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. He had in other words received the anointing of the Spirit. And when he returned to the church mission, that night he stood in front to preach and his wife sat in the back. As he preached, a man stood up and shouted, “I want what he has.” Then the man tried to sit down but couldn’t, and he fell down. Soon fourteen people were lying about the room, overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit, or as some say, by the anointing.

What really got my attention were these words Wigglesworth said about the experience: “So a revival broke out and the crowds came.” Think about that a moment. He said a revival broke out and the crowds came. And I assume that was the dramatic real beginning of his world-wide healing ministry.

A few days after I read that I was meeting with a minister friend, and I told him the Wigglesworth story. I repeated what Wigglesworth had said. And then I said that we had done that, that we had had several meetings like that. There was a night in particular when the Holy Spirit came and soon only Cathy and I and the musician were standing up; everyone else in the audience was stretched out on the floor! There was a time we were holding a healing service at a church not too far away, and the Holy Spirit touched perhaps everyone in the congregation. There have been many occasions when the Holy Spirit touched those in our meetings.

But never has revival broken out and the crowds come, to use Wigglesworth’s words. Rather, the service eventually ends and the people go home. And we go on to the next meeting/service, whether at the same place or elsewhere.

So I said to my minister friend, “Why? Why did a revival break out and the crowds come in Wigglesworth’s day?”

He gave his wise answer. He explained that the times are different now. In Wigglesworth’s day there wasn’t that much going on in the way of entertainment or other activities. When the people left his meeting where the Holy Spirit had so touched everyone, they no doubt told others. And they brought others to the next meetings. And others wanted to come. But in our day? Even though people were dramatically touched in our meetings, and have been, they at the end of the service go home and that is that. Not much telling to others. For most no real compulsion to bring anyone else to our next program wherever that is. They just go home.

I’ve always been amazed that when people are dramatically healed by God of a dramatic illness, perhaps one thought to be terminal, we usually don’t see them and their families and friends at the meetings in the future. Where are they? Why don’t we hear from them?

It’s not like that kind of thing is happening everywhere. Unfortunately it is not.

And of course the answer is just what my minister friend indicates. There is just too much going on. Too much outside the home. And people, once home, stay there. They don’t tell others. They don’t bring others.

Only once did we ever have anything similar to others suddenly coming – at an inner city healing service in a store front church. As we prayed for people to receive their healing, suddenly we noticed people were coming up to us who had not been in the church when we started. And we later learned a woman in the back pew was telephoning people and telling them to get down there to be prayed for, to receive their healing. She had seen the power of God and wanted others to see and experience it.

But that is the only time.

Our world is just too busy and too private. Maybe too busy for God. Too private to tell neighbors and friends and family who are lost or in desperate need of help that that help is being given out at a nearby meeting or service if they only knew, if they only could be open to God to receive.

Ponder all that as you can. And pray for the people of our world, most so lost and yet so busy they don’t have time to tell others of miracles or what they just saw, so busy they can’t be bothered. Even though they see God dramatically move in front of their eyes, that doesn’t change their walk or cause them to tell others.

Amazing.

Jesus can’t be far off, can he.

Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!