Make Peace, Not War

"... even if it is painted as warfare."

PETE AND REPETE were in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left? Repete. Pete and Repete were in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left …

This old joke has been in my repertoire (which is very small) for years. It comes up today because of a book I read. Excellent book. I’ll provide the link down below. But in essence, the book is about the behavior of controlling spirits. Now, you know me. I hate using church terms. “Oh, that’s a controlling spirit!” some say. And I am like “bleh”. Most of what people say is an evil spirit isn’t one. But in this book, it details the steps of behavior, specific to control. What happened after I read it, though, was I got a phone call.

“Did you know what happens when you get to the end of the book?” the person asked me. The book had been helpful to them. “No, what?” I asked. It was also helpful to me. There was a brief pause, then the caller replied, “They go back to step one.” Ding. And there, you have it, folks. There is only so much an evilly-weevilly stupidity control-freak can come up with. Specifying this to actual devils, aka unclean spirits, and that other word I refuse to use because people are like, “OH MY GOD!” (Please Valley-Girl that) … but specifying this to those loser beings (Hey! I like that!), This. Is. The. Truth. They lie, they manipulate, they cause pain, hoping you’ll fall apart, then when that doesn’t work, they go back to lying.

Did you know God is not worried about the enemy He’s defeated? Or de-feeted, as my mother writes it. (An aside, they have no feet. They have no bodies, for that matter. They lost it all when they sinned, including all their memories of who they were. Why would Super Dad, aka the Father, allow them to remember it?) This truth, that they are de-feeted, is in 1 John 3:8. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again and again and again, the word “destroy” in that verse, where it says Jesus was “was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” (which is “loser beings”) means TO DISSOLVE. They have had all they are, and all they were trying to do on the earth, completely dissolved. It’s in the Word. And in the Spirit.

There are things my Papa, the Holy Spirit, would tell those listening. Things in the Word and things understood from the Word. What does that mean? That like Paul, the apostle, we can receive revelation. We cling to the Word, and we must do that. But there was no New Testament when Paul was preaching the gospel. He wrote what He’d learned from Papa, the Spirit, while spending time in God’s Presence. He was years listening and studying before he preached anything (Galatians 1:18). And that is what God, the Trinity, wants each of us to do. They want us to come up higher and trust them. This means, often, often, often, often, not listening to fear because fear gets in the way of our hearing.

“What if this isn’t God?” we ask. I’ve been there and have asked this. But I knew what evil sounded like, and I knew God. He is patience, for one. Devils have none. They tell a lie, hoping to fool you, then if you don’t fall for it, they spill the beans and are back to being hateful. I see their behavior in people. Not saying the people are controlled by an evil spirit aka loser being, but the run downhill is the same. A lie can only be sustained when it is repeated. Unlike Truth, it has no power.

The devil, aka super stupid, is destroyed (Hebrews 2:14). He is “rendered useless”, the meaning of the word “destroyed” there. Unless, of course, we continue to give into his behavior and HATE and LIE and GROW ANGRY and BE VIOLENT … even if it is painted as WARFARE. War is violent. Jesus de-feeted the enemy and all of his works by laying down His life in a most non-violent manner. Here is our example (Hebrews 4:15-16). He didn’t argue, didn’t talk back, didn’t swing His fist, nor any of the things we picture us doing with the Spirit’s Sword. Because it’s His and not ours.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Ephesians 6:17)

Our response to hate is peace. We are told to make peace, and we can only do that by being peaceful. I know this takes a lot of self-restraint, but that is one of Papa’s things. He is incredibly self-controlled (Galatians 5:23). I mean, He parted the waters of the Red Sea in a night, and the land underneath the waters was DRY. Just think of that. D-R-Y. It’s impossible, but not to Him. He could have air-lifted Pharaoh and His army and flung them into the heavens. He could have opened the earth and swallowed them. (Oh wait. He did this once. Numbers 16:32). He can and will cleanse the earth of sin and death one day and remake it in a breath. He will also remake our physical bodies, all of us in the blink of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52). But what He does is never rash or last minute, never done on a whim. He is precise and exact and of perfect timing. This takes self-control.

Evil has no self-control, but we do. And we ought to be exercising it by not saying everything on our minds, by refusing to respond to hatred with more hatred, by not using the good news of our salvation as fear. God is love. Jesus looked like love, then asked us to be like Him and made sure we are capable by sending us His Spirit. Jesus gave us authority, exousia, over evil (Luke 10:19) then gave us power, dunamis, or ability, in the Holy Spirit, who heals our minds, strengthens our resolve, and makes us into peace. Jesus said this in John 14. In verse 26, He says the Spirit will teach us all things. Then in verse 27, He gives us His peace. These go together. Think about that and apply it to John’s Revelation. Apply it to yourself because the more we know about Him, the more we trust Him, the less like the devil we’re going to be and the closer to heaven.

Breaking Controlling Powers: Victory over Spiritual Attacks by Roberts Liardon
https://amzn.to/4r61qIH

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:26-27)

Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash