Evil is Personal and Wants to Destroy You
Adventures, the organization I run, recently acquired a guesthouse in Cambodia. Along with it, it appears that we acquired some residents that came with the property. Late at night, our guests have been hearing demonic voices threatening death.
This may be the stuff of Hollywood movies, but does anyone believe that it is real? Well, we do. I received an email from our base leaders a few days ago about the need for “both natural and spiritual deep cleaning.”
“We have been turning over beds, sweeping away cob webs and washing walls, we have also been removing idols and cultural artwork of temples and false gods from the building then praying over and anointing each room. The best way I can describe it is it’s like we’re doing inner healing and deliverance on a business.”
Evil is real and far more personal than most of us realize. Evil wants to take from you all that you own, including those who are precious to you and even your own life.
It wants to chip away at you until you are cynical, neurotic and depressed.
It will target you and fill your mind with negative thoughts that you in turn slime others with.
And it will hide however it can. It’s amazing to me how ignorant we Americans are about evil. We tend to inherit a rational world view that seeks to explain away man’s inhumanity to man.
Years ago I had to confront this rational world view in myself. Where does evil come from? We read about Jesus confronting demons in the Bible – do they still exist? Am I in danger from them? I needed answers.
M. Scott Peck’s book The People of the Lie helped me. Peck, a psychiatrist, probed the nature of evil. According to Peck, an evil person:
- Is consistently self-deceiving
- Avoids guilt or criticism
- Deceives others as a consequence of their own self-deception
- Projects his or her evils on others
- Abuses political and emotional power
- Maintains a high level of respectability
- Lies incessantly
- Is consistent in his or her sins
- Is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim
Most of us have no problem understanding evil when we look at a man like Hitler or when we look at the Nazis. But what if such men were still alive and never held to account?
Though they are not Nazis, such a situation in fact exists. In 1965, a million Indonesians were murdered as the government looked on. Many of the killers are still alive, living just down the street from the families of those they killed.
The movie The Look of Silence gives us an up-close look at the face of evil by showing us these killers as they are confronted by the brother of one of their victims.
It’s an astounding movie. Adi, the brother of one who was murdered watches as Inong, the murderer, reenacts the horrible way he killed his brother with a machete – chopping at him as his brother screamed for mercy.
Later, Inong says, “You have to drink human blood or else you will go crazy.”
What? Who is crazy here? Inong is as wicked as any S.S. trooper and he is alive and lives right down the street.
How do we explain a monster like Inong?
Peck would explain him by saying, “he is a person of the lie.” He started out innocent enough as a child, but somewhere along life’s path, he began to lose his way. He kept believing lies and telling lies until evil so embedded itself in him that he now represents evil.
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Now, the purpose of this post is not to stir up fear; it’s to help you recognize that you are being raised in a culture that is rational and ill-equipped to deal with the reality of evil. Though the Bible is full of instruction about how evil targets us, our churches have effectively bought into this rational world view.
Churches around the world have no such problem. In places like Haiti or Uganda, young people visiting from America find their world view exploded as they encounter the reality of spiritual warfare.
Where are you in all this? Do you know how to wield the authority you have been given to confront your enemy? If someone asked you to set them free from demonic attack, could you do so?
Perhaps a good place to begin growing in your authority is by looking at the relationships in your life. Do you know a person of the lie? Have you ever been victimized by such a person? You do not have to cower – the Bible says “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
Evil is in this to win. We all have the potential to become a person of the lie if we’ll just allow ourselves to be seduced by evil. Play footsie with a lie long enough and it will wrap itself around you.
You have the power to set a person of the lie free with a truth encounter. Every lie denies the reality of truth. Confront the lie in the name of Jesus and evil has to flee. Read more about that here.
Here’s the bottom line: evil is personal and it hates you. You are a target. The smart thing to do is to face reality and learn to fight it.
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Appreciating this article. Thanks……..provoking some questions here with me when you asked “Do you know how to wield the authority you’ve been given?” My honest answer would be no, but I trust HIM to teach me this. I sometimes have dreamed of demonic oppression in a room and I am not able to get the words out to speak to it. I wake myself up trying to speak, but can’t enunciate the words. Those dreams have lately lead me to ask for clarity and understanding of what that’s about. So, thanks, Seth, for these words on this vital topic.
I want to understand and walk free and in this authority.
I pray you do, Rhonda.
Wow! This is all very true and very convicting. It makes me want to reassess the relationships in my life to see if anyone in my life is a person of the lie. If I truly value freedom for myself and for the people God has put in my life, I will have to step out of my comfort zone and confront the lies that God reveals to me. Thank you!
Go for it, Myles!
Very good post. As you note, most Americans believe the lie that evil does not exist except for in movies or they believe the lie that there is nothing that we can do.
There is so much good information here, I am going to re-read this post again.
I confront it every day. My son is diagnosed w/ a serious mental illness; he is tormented. I am pressing in daily, hourly for his healing and deliverance. I have other believing believers partnering with me. We are praying from Christ’s victory. I have dealt with this all my life in family members. I know my Redeemer is alive and I am taking Him at His word; to set the captives free.
We are seeing major shifts; it is challenging! I thank Jesus daily for my son’s healing and victory!
Seth, thank you for boldly addressing the existence of these fallen beings, the sheer evil of these immortal entities, and their influence on mankind…. which all of Scripture describes… ALL of whom have been vanquished by Jesus… non of whom can resist His authority.
You describe people of the lie, but I also believe that demonic assignments are at work even in the lives of believers, through the lies we believe, which sabotage who we are meant to be in Christ. We may well be approaching a new frontier in our conquest of The Promised Land as we come into the fullness of understanding the authority of Jesus Christ to expose and end these assignments, freeing us to come into the fullness of all that we are meant to be as a new creation experiencing the fullness of Christ.
Nothing to fear, but everything to look forward to as our eyes are opened.
That’s a good point, Valerie. It makes sense that they would target believers, who are their natural enemies.