Power of God vs. power of evil

Years ago a family began attending the church we attended. They were involved and gave generously. The woman was hospitable, and began inviting women in the congregation to her home. I was among the first.

She lived on an acreage in a big house hidden in the trees. When I got there, she introduced me to a friend whom I’d not seen before. They were baking bread.

For some reason, I didn’t talk much that afternoon, just listened. Perhaps they thought my silence meant that I had no objections to what I was hearing. They started out with their concept of spiritual gifts which came from the Old Testament. They told me what they thought my gift was (even though they hardly knew me), then said God had gifted them with prophecy and discernment, and their task was to divide true from false in churches.

The more they talked, the more I realized that they were determined to split congregations, and they were convinced that this was their ‘calling’ from God. Their method was directed toward the church women whom they planned to subvert away from their families and the church family.

At that time in my life, I was quite out-spoken, but I held my tongue as I listened to their plans. I was a bit fearful and thinking, “I’m not touching this with a ten-foot pole.”

At that, one of them, with a total change of tone, looked straight at me and said, “You are thinking that you will not touch this with a ten-foot pole.”

And at that, I began to shake, and excused myself. When I got home, I called our pastor and he called the elders. I don’t remember the details of it, but that family soon left the community, and the plans of these two women never came to anything.

My reading today, for some reason, reminded me of that experience. God was using Paul to do healing miracles, so some men who were not Christians decided to imitate what he was doing. However, instead of being successful using ‘the name of Jesus’ the evil spirits that they tried to exorcise turned on them and overpowered them.

This event had an electrifying effect on the church. Acts 19:17-20 says, “This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.”

Evil spirits are no match for the name of Christ, but that name cannot be used by those who do not have His authority to do so. Even the evil spirits knew that, and oddly enough, because of their response, respect for Jesus Christ grew.

Not only that, the believers (note, believers) began confessing their deeds, including the practice of magic which certainly does not belong in the kingdom of God. To show that their repentance was genuine, they burned all their books, the value totaling wages for fifty thousand days’ work! These people were deeply impressed by the power of evil and didn’t want any part of it.

The bottom line of all this is that God’s work cannot be hindered by the power of evil, but Christians need to make sure they are not dabbling on the wrong side of the line between light and darkness. Those women who wanted to split churches were definitely doing that. Their theology and their plan was not from God. Their ability to read my mind was not either. They may not have been believers at all, or demonic, but whatever they were, they were in a dangerous place.

God calls his people to renounce the hidden things of darkness and any secret sins. These sins might not be obvious to others, but they interfere with hearing and obeying Him. Not only that, such things interfere with the growth of the Word of the Lord and diminish our attempts to magnify His name.

I understand a zeal to divide true from false, but without the power of God, any efforts to do this will be evil and destructive. The church is not purified with a whip but with genuine sorrow for sin and repentance, even a repentance that is costs us much.