One of the most interesting Scriptures, and most difficult to interpret, is the Word that the Lord gave to His disciples when He said, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? John 6:70b. It is translated a devil, but actually it is devil.
Where in the course of our life do we become what we have thought and what we have done?
If we look back at what Judas was, we realize that at the beginning he was chosen, chosen by God.
“For he was counted among us, and received his portion in this ministry.” Acts 1:17, NASB.
He probably performed as many miracles as the rest of the disciples or apostles as they were sent forth. Wasn’t he among the twelve and among the seventy who were sent forth to go before the Lord, and to whom even the demons were subject?
And having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give.” Matthew 10:1–8, NASB.
But where did Judas become devil? It is difficult to determine, because at the last Passover Jesus said, “One of you who dips his hand in the dish with Me will betray Me” (Matthew 26:23). He turned to Judas and said, “What you do, do quickly,” because Satan had entered his heart.
When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.
He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ breast, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus therefore answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
And so after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night. John 13:21–22, 25–27, 30, NASB.
Where are we in this scope of becoming? If we can look at the negative, then we can certainly view the positive. In the negative, we understand that Judas literally became “the son of perdition,” a phrase used only about the endtime man of lawlessness in II Thessalonians 2:3. How did he become that?
“While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12, NASB.
Even though there was a spark of realization in him that he was the Judas who betrayed Christ, and so he committed suicide, yet there was something that drove him. What were the feelings of his heart, where the Scripture says that he was a thief and he took that which was in the bag of the treasury of Christ?
But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. John 12:4–6, NASB.
Where did it all start, and how did it progress, and where did he become that instrument of betrayal to Jesus Christ?
It is difficult to understand how a person does not reclaim himself, but he becomes stronger and stronger in his defeat until he becomes sin itself; he becomes satanic.
There is no satanic possession as great as that which has progressed step by step in rebellion, withdrawal, and resistance to the Word of Christ.
Let’s look a little further. How many times has the enemy assaulted you with the questions that have come and the problems that have been great, but always you say: “I may not understand, but I’ve set my heart upon the Lord.” David was a man after God’s own heart, who fixed his heart: “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed on Thee” (Psalm 57:7). David became something special; he was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). Their hearts beat together, they loved each other, they respected each other. The dealings of God upon David were very great; but he always came through because he loved God, and he became something great.
Typically, the Christ who was to come was foreshadowed in a thousand ways in the life of King David, even with all of his weaknesses. Now, we are becoming something because we have believed the Word; we have not rebelled against it. Christ is our Lord, and because of that we become something in Him. But more than that, the Word has become us.
Ultimately you will be either your fears or your faith.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). It does not mean that you will be merely swayed and motivated and directed by them—you will become those deep innermost things of your heart.
If you doubt, you will become doubt. If you believe, you will become faith. If you love God and you walk with Him, His nature will be yours! You will be a “partaker of the divine nature.”
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. II Peter 1:4, KJV.
You may consider yourself to be of the chosen seed of Abraham, chosen of God, only to find that Jesus will turn to you, as He did in John chapter 8, and say, “You are of your father, the devil; and his works you will do, because the Word has no place in you.”
I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:37, 44, KJV.
If you do not receive the Word and cherish it, and if it has no place in you, you will not become the Word! And if you do not become the Word, you will become a monstrosity, that awful monster that is a product of a religious instinct without a divine input. You will become that freak in the whole nature and scheme of God, if you aspired to a place, a position, a walk in God, but you did not believe His Word that would create in you that very nature and make you what you are to be.
How far do we go before we realize that we become our fears, or we become our faith?
We become the personification of the Word we believe, or of the unbelief in that Word.
What we are is the product of the Word we have believed, or of the unbelief and rejection of that Word.
Satanic possession (as with Judas) can be the end result of progressive rebellion and resistance to the Word of Christ.
A man becomes either his faith or his fears.
I believed yesterday what I am becoming today.