GOD UTILIZES THE ENEMY – 2
(Thirty plus years ago God put Don Rogers in my life. He trained and mentored me in spiritual ministry. When he was no longer able to minister, I had the privilege taking over his “Spiritual Warfare Ministries”. He had written many articles about spiritual warfare. I have edited and added to his work for this blog.)
In the last blog we saw that sometimes God uses evil spirits to administer chastisement on those who need discipline (John 15:1; Hebrews 12:4-12; Proverbs 3:11-12). If there is no response to that, then He may turn the chastisement to judgment. Demons are used for that as well:
- God Uses Evil Spirits To Dispense JUDGMENT. They are permitted to work in the lives of those who have brought condemnation upon themselves.
- Abimelech – Judges 9:23 – He was the son of Gideon’s concubine. When Gideon died, he had an opportunity to ascend to power and rule Israel. He convinced the men of Shechem to support him in getting rid of 70 brothers. Only Jothan, the youngest brother survived. Jothan later pronounced what could be called a prophetic curse upon Abimelech and the town of Shechem. After Abimelech had reigned three years, God permitted an evil spirit to start stirring up hatred between Abimelech and the people of Shechem. A man named Gaal convinced the people that they should not serve Abimelech. So, Abimelech attacked the city of Shechem and eventually killed the people and destroyed the city and its tower. Then Abimelech went to the city of Thebez and encamped against it. Many of the people of that city also fled to their tower for safety. As Abimelech approached the tower to burn it, as he had done in Shechem, a woman dropped a millstone down upon his head and crushed his skull. Rather than have it said he was killed by a woman, he had his armor bearer kill him with a sword.
“Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.” (Judg 9:56-57)
- King Ahab – 1 Kings 22:22-23 – He was a wicked king of Israel. Ahab asked Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah to go with him and fight at Ramoth Gilead to free the city from Syria’s control. Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to inquire of the Lord, to seek His will. Ahab called together 400 prophets and asked them if he should fight for Ramoth Gilead. All the prophets responded, “Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” Jehoshaphat was not satisfied with the 400 prophets. He said, “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of Him?” Micaiah was summoned and he told the king, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd.” King Ahab was not happy with his response, because it was not what he wanted to hear.
Then Micaiah, the prophet, spoke and said what the Lord had shown him in a vision. He saw the Lord sitting on his throne asking the question, “Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?” There were a few responses, then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, “I will persuade him.” The Lord said to him, “In what way?” so the spirit said, “I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” And the Lord said, “You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.”
The king had Micaiah put in prison and proceed to go to battle against the king of Syria. Even though he was disguised, a random arrow struck the king between his armor and he bled to death in his chariot on the battlefield. So, King Aha b was brought to judgment because God permitted an evil spirit to work in the circumstance. “They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the Lord had declared.” (1 Kings 22:38)
God never changes. He certainly could be doing the same thing today in people groups, countries and even individuals who turn from His truth. Ask for wisdom when praying for someone who is rejecting and rebelling against God. You can’t pray for God to bless them if God I allowing thi to bring them back to Himself!
BOOKS OF BLOGS Recently I’ve compiled my almost 400 spiritual warfare blogs into 3 books with an excellent, thorough index to all the blogs. They make an excellent resource for any subject even remotely related to spiritual warfare which you’d like to know more about. You can download a PDF or read it on line. Go to https://www.christiantrainingonline.org/ Open the Spiritual Warfare site, then click on “Learning More (Books)” and the listing will open. If you have problems or want me to email them to you just contact me at Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org