You may have noticed that I haven’t got involved in political matters on this blog. By nature I would be considered a conservative. My time in the Vietnam war might have had something to do with that because I grew up in a family of liberal democrats. So was I until I was exposed to the corruption of the U.S. government. It was very much a downer to find out at the end of that war that 57,000 of our men and women died over there for nothing except to make corrupt politicians and the military-industrial-complex rich in exchange for the blood of our servicemen. Enough said.
I got home from that war in 1967 after three “cruises” over there in the Navy off the coast of Vietnam. The more I read about the political history of the U.S. and Vietnam, the more disenchanted I got with all that took place during that war. I was looking for answers and an alternative to the insanity that was happening all around me which continued after I came home. But I can now say that God used it all to get me to look beyond myself and anything this world had to offer.
The problem with most of us is that we keep looking for answers in this world. But what did Jesus say as He was being tried by Pilate?
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36, ESV2011)
The question is, what kingdom are we of who claim Christ? We who want to fight and use soulish means to advance Jesus and His kingdom are showing that we are not of His kingdom. Jesus had to rebuke Peter when he drew his sword in defense of his Savior. “Put away your sword, Peter. Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.”
I think I had a two stage conversion to Christ. By 1968 We had started to attend an evangelical church in our neighborhood. Having been raised a Catholic, hearing the Bible preached from the pulpit was something new to me and the Bible was scratching an itch I couldn’t reach. By the summer of 1970 the Holy Spirit was hard after me and I was becoming quite miserable trying to be a “good” church Christian. I could read the Bible for myself, but I was missing the enlightening power of the Spirit and it was like reading a big city phone book. It was all disconnected. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man can come to the Father but by me.” Led by the pastor of that church, I had said “a sinner’s prayer” in 1968 but that was not enough. God wanted me to walk IN the Spirit and not just in religion so that I might hear His voice. Jesus said that after He died He would send us the Comforter and that He would lead us into all truth (see John 16:13&14). Until I received the infilling of the Spirit I had no idea what I was missing.
Before then I was totally miserable and terrible to live with. My wife had told me that unless something changed, she and the kids would have to leave me. She told me that the hate in me was killing her and the kids. THAT gave me a lot to think about over the next three months! Of coarse the enemy was telling me to commit suicide and do everyone a favor (if God had not moved on me the way He did I probably would have). It is no wonder that over 300,000 Vietnam war veterans have commuted suicide or died in strange accidents after coming back home.
One day in July 1970 I came out of that Sunday church to find a handbill on the windshield of our car. It was an invitation to park meetings that some out of town “Jesus People” were having in our area. I figured, “what do I have to lose!” After going to two or three of these open air meetings, I finally found out what was missing in me, I had not yet been filled with the Spirit of God. I asked one of these young people what it meant to be filled with the Spirit. He told me that the law of physics states that no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. THAT I understood! He went on to tell me that as long as I was filled with myself, the Spirit could not come in. I needed to get down and humble myself before God and be emptied out of everything I was, everything I had, everything I even hoped to be. I had to confess every sin that I had committed as far back as I could remember and give it ALL to Jesus. He went on to say that if I would get real with God, He would fill the dark void in me with His Spirit. That evening in a coffee shop prayer room, I did just that and it was not a pretty sight.
Looking back on it, I think that I picked up a spirit of murder while I was in the Vietnam war. Since I left that war behind, I had been collecting guns and ammunition and dreaming of killing people that were against my political beliefs. The guns and ammo had to go along with all that was driving me to do evil. In short, I got delivered that night.
The apostle Paul wrote,
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! (2Cor 5:17, AMP)
Sometime that night the Spirit of Christ came into me and I awoke in the morning with a new mind and a new heart. All that hate that had been driving me was gone and I was filled with Christ’s love for all men. Three months later my father-in-law came to visit. He took my wife aside and said, “What has happened to Mike? He doesn’t swear anymore!” As the Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” and I had been given a new heart (see Hebrews 8:10&11).
You might be wondering, “What does all this have to do with the assassination of Charlie Kirk?” I had not been a follower of his and not a big fan of political people in general since Christ set me free of all that had been driving me before. As a result, I have to stay clear of getting involved with politics least I fall back into my old mindset and make room for demons to take over again. Jesus warned us about such things when He said,
“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Matt 12:43-45, ESV2011)
In Proverbs we read, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” (Prov 26:11, ESV2011). Dear saints, we must learn from what happened to this young man that shot Charlie Kirk. He had been meditating on killing Charlie “because Charlie was filled with hate.” That hate demon had found a home in him to manifest the will of the prince of demons. Except for the grace of God, that could have been me in 1970 taking the life of some left-wing politician or antiwar demonstrator.
When Jesus and the disciples were about to pass through a Samaritan village, those people turned them away because they saw that Jesus and the disciples were Jews heading for Jerusalem. (The Samaritans believed that they had the true place to worship in their “holy mountain”). How did Jesus’ disciples react?
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, will you that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?’ But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, ‘You know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And they went to another village. (Luke 9:54-56, KJ2000)
What manner of spirit are we of? It is sad what happened to Charlie Kirk and many believe that he is now with Jesus in heaven. We should pray for his wife and children, but we should also pray that this young man that killed him that he might reach out to Jesus in his misery. Remember Jesus’ words to Nicodemus. No one is beyond salvation.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17, ESV2011)
“That whosoever believes in Him” would have eternal life. It is never too late. Remember the repentant thief that was crucified with Jesus? He called out saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43, ESV2011)
(The above photo was courtesy of Janine Robinson on Unsplash)
A Wilderness Voice 