Dear Elle,

We’ve been talking about your God-given assignment of going out into the world, announcing the good news and casting out demons. We’ve established that casting out demons today means to confront and dispel the lies that the evil one uses to hold us captive to death. We’ve discussed how it is sometimes difficult to identify lies, so let’s talk now about the nature of these lies.

Basically there are two forces operating in our world and in our lives, the force of God – all things loving and good, and the force of evil – all things anti-God. Make a list of the character and nature of God. For example, God is:

Loving

Generous

Faithful

Kind

Trustworthy

Now, next to the attribute of God, write its opposite, this is the nature of evil.

Loving – Hateful

Generous – Selfish

Faithful – Disloyal

Kind – Cruel

Trustworthy – Undependable

Evil is the opposite of God. God is loving and desires our best, evil hates us and wants our demise; God is generous, giving us all we need for life, evil robs us of life’s necessities. You get the picture.

Job teaches us the tactics of the evil one. Satan (evil in form) constantly roams about the earth looking for opportunities to cause people to doubt God and turn away from trusting God. In effect, to curse God. These attempts are usually subtle and insidious. In our case, they are rarely blatant, as good “Christians” we would never outright curse God, would we? But how often do we question God’s ability or desire to provide?

Even though God’s love and blessing surrounds us, we are still under the influence of the evil one. We need to recognize the nature of this influence in order to identify the lies. I’ll talk more about this in my next letter.

With you in the journey,

Debby