KNOWING the True God 

Destroying and Evil spirits!

by

Keith Hunt

GOD SAYS DESTROY ALL! "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Samuel 15:3). It may surprise some for me to say that the Lord has not made it easy to believe and accept Him. Here we have a verse that if you wanted a verse to help you walk away from God, this is probable as good as any. Here the Eternal orders a whole people to be slain, including infants and suckling, even the cattle. What is the answer to this verse? I do NOT know! I cannot give you an answer from the pages of the Bible. For NO REASON is given to us. We can speculate till the cows come home as they say, but an answer in the Scriptures is simply NOT given to us. There are times when the things that belong to God are His, not for us, not revealed to us. We do as the apostle Paul said, look through a glass darkly at times. Jesus, when as a man on earth, also said some hard to understand things. One specifically is in John chapter 6 concerning the eating of His body and the drinking of His blood. Now He did not explain what He was talking about right away, and just left it as is. Some of His disciples just could not take it. They said it was too hard to understand, and because Jesus did not give them the understanding, they packed their bags and left. It was a little later that to those disciples who did not leave, that He explained exactly what He means by eating His body and drinking His blood. We can be at times be bewildered by the Lord. Jesus asked the twelve if they would also leave (John 6:67). Peter replied, "Lord to whom shall we go." The bottom line is, although some things are hard to understand, as in 1 Samuel 15:3, and no answer even given anywhere in the Bible, there is no person we can go to and follow; Jesus still has the words of eternal life; He is still the Christ, the Son of God (John 6:68-69). God still exists, and He is still Holy, perfect, without sin, and the righteous judge. I cannot tell you why God wanted the Amalek people destroyed even down to their cattle. I can tell you that God knows why; I can tell you He had a perfect reason for wanting it so; and I can tell you by the words of Paul, that we shall know one day even as we are known. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18 and 19). Were there children and infants there also. The Bible does not say in specific words. Maybe, but maybe not. It may be possible that the two cities were "adults only" cities, for indeed science has not made it possible for homosexuals and lesbians to produce children, as husband and wife produce children in sexual union. It is not unthinkable to speculate that Sodom and Gomorrah were adult only cities, but then that is only speculation. There are some things in the Bible, concerning God, that we must admit we do not have an answer, not now. We must keep in mind deuteronomy 29:29. Mark it in your Bible. Some things are kept for now secret from you, while other thing are revealed. GOD LOOKS ON THE HEART We have seen that Saul was chosen by God to be king over Israel, but I have stated the Lord chose him with a view of the mind of the Israelites in the picture, what they would look to as a "Wow, he's the big strong handsome fellow we want." And we have seen God gave him the Spirit and a changed heart, with men also that God had touched. He was given a pretty darn good set of tools to be able to govern Israel. Saul threw them away, wanting to do his own thing, and make up the rules as he went along. God took him away from being Israel's king. Now, the Lord basically said, "I'm putting what the Israelites would like on the outside, the physicallly large and powerful looks, will be put to one side, and I will dig deep into the persons soul and inner heart-mind. I'm putting aside the equation of how man looks on the outside, and I'll really this time search the heart, know the depth of the heart, for this time their king will have a heart after my very own heart. It was basically, "I've learned a lesson with Saul. I am doing it differently this time around. What the minds of people think about a man to lead them, is not coming into the equation at all this time. I'm looking only at the heart, and it must be very much like mine." The boy David was chosen by God as Israel's next king. This whole experience for God, was an experience. He put Himself in a position with how he knew Israel would look more on the outside and not as much on the character and heart, and went along, God put Himself in the willed position of mind, that He did not know how spiritually strong Saul would remain. He knew He had given him a changed heart and also the Holy Spirit, but it would seem He concerned Himself with what the physical people would vote for. So Saul was chosen. After that did not work out, God put the people to one side, He would no longer look at their heart and what they might like in a leader - someone big, tall, and in size outstanding, head and shoulders above all the people . The people's idea of a leader was set to one side, Now it would be the heart that the Lord would search. The sheep-caring lad David was eventually found and the Lord told Samuel that it was this somewhat unsuspecting young shepherd lad, that had the heart that was after God's own heart. EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD? "But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him" (1 Samuel 16:14). It sounds as if God may deliberately send evil spirit to trouble people. James the apostle puts this to rest by being inspired to write: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin...." (James 1:13-15). God does not sit down in His boardroom with His executive angels, just collecting all kinds of ideas and plans whereby he can send evil spirits to tempt people to sin. There is no deliberate planned forethought by the Lord to scheme up various ways to have evil spirit (we call demons) trying to make individual people fall into sin. The answer to 1 Samuel 16 is found in the book of Job. This man Job was perfect and upright, one that feared God and avoided evil. One day Satan comes before the Lord and the Lord asks him if he has considered His servant Job, that there was none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, fearing God and avoiding evil. Satan accused God of setting an hedge about him, and blessing the work of his hands. "But," says Satan, "put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." The Lord answered Satan, "Behold all that he has is in your power: only upon him do not put your hand" (Job 1:1,6,8,12). The story goes on to show that eventually God ALLOWED Satan to take just about everything away from Job and even curse his physical flesh. The point is we can clearly see that sometime God MAY ALLOW an evil spirit to have some power over a human person in the physical part of life. So such a situation may be a test for that individual to see if they will be defeated and do as Satan thought Job would do, that is curse God to His face. But such a test being allowed is not in any way a deliberate plan on God's part to entice people to sin. Trials and test ALLOWED by God to come on people is NOT with the view to entice them to sin. That is what James wanted to make crystal clear to people, who were thinking that God spent time in His study-den plotting how to entice people to sin. Paul was also inspired to re-assure us that even with trials and tests allowed to come our way, God would not try us above what we are able to bear, but will with the trial, make a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). Job was not tested above what he could endure. He was indeed quite the man Job was. When you read what he was able to endure in the physical, and not curse God, he was a very strong minded man. He was able to endure very much. God knew him and knew also what he could take on the physical side of this life. He did take it. A way of escape was given. The Lord was there in it all, not leaving Job, but agreeing Job was perfect and upright, and did indeed fear the Lord. Job was humbled by and through it all. He came to see God with a clearer eye, and the Lord once more blessed Job in many physical ways. Read chapter 42! In the Spirit of God leaving Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord coming to him, we also have the teaching Jesus gave us. You may clean your house, yourself, be converted, but if you put out the Spirit of God, and you are empty, then any number of evil spirits can come and make their abode in you. And the latter end is worse than the first. Saul, as a free agent, put away the Spirit of the Lord, departed from that personal relationship with God, and in so doing he left himself open to an evil spirit to come upon him, and evil spirit that God ALLOWED to influence him. There are a number of times in the Bible where it puts something as "coming from God." As God is always THE power of the universe every second of every day, days without end, then knowing He is and has authority over everything and every being in the universe, we could say "everything comes from God" - the good the bad and the inbetween as we say. Nothing happens in the universe that God does not allow. He allows everything that happens. God does not will Himself to step in and stop all that we could consider evil, sin, wickedness, and just "bad." So yes bad things happen every day on this earth, and sometimes bad things happen to good people, to the very children of God. The Bible is full of that sure truth. Somebody (I forget who) wrote a book entitled "When Bad Things Happen To Good People." Now, if you reject, cast out the Spirit of the Lord from your mind and heart, then sure enough it is quite possible you are going to leave yourself open to an evil spirit coming to trouble you. God will not always stop that evil spirit attacking you. He may allow it freedom to do what evil spirits like to do, which is, come and trouble you in various and different ways. In that sense, because God does not stop the evil spirit from coming to you, you can say as the Bible puts it, "and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." It is something like some insurance policies. They may have a clause in there that says you are not insured for "acts of God." It means in plain terms that a tornado that blows your house into the next county, is deemed as coming from the Lord, an act of nature He did not will Himself to step in and prevent happening. Hence termed by the Insurance Company as "an act of God" - and your possibly out of luck - no coverage for God allowing various things He CAN CONTROL *if* He wanted to but often does not want to do. In that sense the hurricane or tornado or forest fire started by lightning, is called an act of God. The Lord could stop such things happening but chooses not to, so the Insurance Company claims the "act of God" clause, if that is there in your policy, you are on your own, or on the shoulders of the Government giving you financial help deeming they classify you and others as a National Disaster, which then entitles you to qualify for funds from the State or Federal Government. EVIL SPIRITS LEAVE "And it cam to pass when the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, that David took a harp and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed" (1 samuel 16:23). This I'm going to talk about is only one part of the whole subject of Demons. But it is an important part. A fuller indepth study I will upload to this Site by Ralph Woodrow in the very near future called "Dealing with Demons." Not many take the time to write on the subject of DEMONS, but it is a subject we need to know, as the Bible is quite open to the fact demons are very real and are out to stick our Christian hide to the wall. The human mind, thankfully, was created by the Lord in such a way that demons CANNOT EASILY posses it. True, the Bible talks about people having demons INSIDE of them, possessing them. But this is ONLY the relatively FEW in the overall population of the earth, past and present. Most minds, most people do not give much thought, or put the other way, they are putting their minds on the everyday life of living on this planet. They are as we say, "getting on with it" - occupying their minds with work, school, study of this or that, marriage, child rearing, and hobbies and sports. Now, demons (fallen angels, who rebelled along with the one we now know as Satan, in the ages of the past) would if they could, love to posses the bodies and minds of all individuals on this earth. But God has not made that possible for them. When the human mind is shall we say in "normal" mode, it is impossible for demons to move right on in. The mind of Saul is a good example. As we read through the life of Saul in 1 and 2 Samuel, we see that the evil spirit came on Saul at different times. When David played his harp, something in the mind of Saul changed: it went back to "normal" mode, and the evil spirit left. Yes it can be true that some minds never go back to normal mode and so the evil spirit can stay, until the healing power of God would cast out the evil spirit and re- establish that mind back to normal mode. That is why MOST of the world's population are not possessed by evil spirits. If they were then we would have destroyed human life from off this earth, as we generally know and experience human life. There has to be more normal minds that cannot be demon possessed than ones that can be possessed, or it would be constant hell on earth out there. But Satan and the demons, though not able to posses the average normal mind, they can INFLUENCE the human mind, in MANY various ways, as through wrong idea, concepts, teachings, through wrong practices, traditions, and many others ways. They only need to get the snowball moving down the hill, and they know it will become larger and larger as it picks up speed. God ALLOWS it all, it is one way by which people are BLINDED to truth, and only God through His Spirit can come and remove that blindness and grant someone His thoughts and His mind. So demons are limited to WHO and HOW many they can literally posses, but the deceptions they can manifest by manipulation with the human mind can be multitudinous, myriad, and diversified and simple to complex. The New Testament is full of warnings about the deceptions of Satan, and the warning that he is like a lion going about trying to devour everyone. It seems there is no limits set on Satan and his helpers as far as deceptions of falsehood. The world is traffic-jam filled with WRONG teachings, philosophies, ideologies, and religions. There is utter CONFUSION out there, and your Bible says God is NOT the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). SOME of the horrible things done by humans to other humans could be the result of demon possession, then it may not be either, for we have to keep in mind what is written in Jeremiah 17:9. The word "is" is not in the Hebrew; the human heart CAN BE deceitful above all, and desperately WICKED. A number of facts must be taken into account (such eduction, influence, up-bringing etc.) to make the heart desperately wicked. Add to all that the INFLUENCE the demons can have on the human mind, and yes, the human heart could turn out to be in that individual desperately wicked. Demon POSSESSION, thankfully, is not around every corner; it is relatively the very few who are literally demon possessed. But it does take place, and Saul was one of those individuals who allowed his mind to be in such a state that demons could come in at times. For further study on this subject of demon possession I refer you to the study on this Website called "Dealing with Demons." ..................