With a fervor we should hate not only sin, but we should hate Satan and the way he assaults the people of God. It is abhorrent the way he blocks and hinders the anointed of the Lord. We also should despise the conditionings in our own spirits that make us reluctant to accept the full measure of God’s commission, all the privileges and promises which are ours in the Lord. Let us hate the blockage that we see and loose ourselves into everything God has for us.
Of the seven parables in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, the first two are concerned largely with Satan’s efforts to hinder the Word and its progress in the earth. Let us examine the parts of these parables where the emphasis is on the work of Satan against the Word. After Jesus had gone outside to sit by the sea, a great multitude gathered around Him on the beach; and He climbed into a boat and began to speak. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and devoured them. And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Verses 3–9.
Then Jesus began to expound this parable to His disciples. “Hear then the parable of the sower. When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.” Verses 18–19. The first thing that happens to the seed is that Satan battles to devour it before there is a spiritual understanding. Actually, the word understanding is misleading, because it implies a mental understanding and assent. This is not what the Lord was talking about. For a deeper meaning let us use the term revelation. When the Word is sown and there is no revelation of it, it does not take root. It is only when God has made a Word real to you that it comes alive. The words real, made real, and revelation refer to the same thing. Unless the Word is a revelation to you, it is not made real to you; it is just a thought, just an idea. But with revelation, the truth catches fire. It is joined to you irrevocably. It never leaves your heart; rather, it becomes a deep revelation to your spirit. When God has made that Word real, the enemy cannot take it away from you.
Wherever there is a lack of revelation, the birds come to pick up the seeds as fast as they can. The devil is ready to snatch that Word away before it becomes real to you. Therefore you should pray for the Lord to seal the Word to your heart. Then you will remember the Word more than ever before. You will retain it and find it coming to mind. If you ask the Lord to make the Word real, the Holy Spirit starts making it real. Listen to tapes of today’s living Word, again and again. As you meditate on that Word and pray over it, the Spirit will keep moving until a penetration is made beyond the wall of distracting thought. Beyond the wall of hindrances and barriers to mental understanding, God will start reaching your heart with that Word. It will become alive to you. Then the birds cannot get it; then the demons cannot take it away. How many truths are lost to you because the devil comes into the picture and grabs them away before they really live for you!
Matthew 13:24–30: He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.” The tares were a weed called darnel. Darnel looks very much like wheat, but it produces no edible grain. “And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ And the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Verses 36–38: Then He left the multitudes, and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” And He answered and said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one.” Notice how similar they will appear. The moving of God’s Spirit in the earth and the coming forth and manifestation of the sons of God will be the most disreputable, reprehensible, hated thing in the world because of the reproach which Satan will bring upon it. He will bring forth every filthy, devil-possessed imitation he can, in order to discredit those who are walking in the truth. Just by similarity it will appear that all are growing side by side, that all are the same.
The difference between what God is doing and what Satan is doing can be very subtle. Today’s remnant of God did not come forth from any other movement; its origin was pure. Those who walk with God in that remnant are not tares; they are the pure wheat which has been sown. However, it is evident that the tares look very much like the wheat. For instance, some of the teachings of the Latter Rain movement several years ago dealt with the manifestation of the sons of God. They believed in personal directive prophecy. They believed in the return of the gifts of the Spirit. They believed in the laying on of hands. They had a great deal of prophesying and singing in the Spirit. But if you had attended one of the Latter Rain services and would compare it with one of today’s New Testament order services, you would see the vast difference of spirit between the two.
Jesus further explained the parable to the disciples: “And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.” It must be at the consummation of an age when we will see this happen. This is happening now: “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.” Verses 39–41. Do you grasp what Jesus was saying? Everything that is offensive must go. This is happening right now among those who are walking with God. Without any vindictiveness on their part, the Lord is starting to gather out of their midst everything that is a stumbling block and everything that is lawless. According to Matthew 7:22–23, some people will say, “Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and do many mighty works?” But He will say, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity,” which in the Greek means “lawless ones”—those without divine order or divine restraints operative in their lives.
A level of discipleship is coming forth today, which through the past generations was rarely, if ever, attained to. This is occuring despite the fact that God is allowing His people to become transparent, with nothing swept under the rug, with nothing hidden. Some churches want everything to look altogether good; the people do not openly do anything wrong. Whatever would look bad in people’s sight they do secretly, so that it will not be a problem to the rest of the church. Let us not do that. Let us be open, without any intentional deception on our part. The enemy may come to deceive us, but as long as we are without guile, as long as we are without any hypocrisy and the cover-up spirit in us, we will move ahead; and God will keep gathering out of our midst every offensive thing.
The work of Satan is to make the false come forth looking like that which God is doing. It is so very similar, and it is growing so close that one cannot be pulled up without harming the other. God said something about that in the words of Paul: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds); casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. II Corinthians 10:3–6.
When we have obeyed God and have come forth as a mature harvest in the earth, the Son of Man will send forth angels who will pull out the tares, “and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:42–43. If you would like to see the righteous shining as the sun in the Kingdom of God, then fulfill your obedience. While we are battling against the enemy and believing to see him bruised under our feet, we know that if delay comes there is no dispensational reason for it. There is no cause for delay except that our obedience has not yet come to the full. Therefore, the best way for us to defeat the devil is to humble ourselves before God, be as obedient to Him as we can, avoid letting any moment lag, press in with all our heart, and appropriate everything He has for us. The more quickly our obedience is complete, the more quickly the Lord will avenge every disobedience, bring down every stronghold, and defeat the enemy.
Do you wonder why God has not done it already? It would be like pulling up the tares when the wheat is still tender and immature. If He destroyed the tares too soon, some of the wheat, His people, could be uprooted too. In fact, it will still shake people up when God starts to go through the midst of His people and pull out the tares of the devil—witchcraft, for example. Sometimes certain ones beam a type of witchcraft against what God is bringing forth. They may even be conscious of what they are doing. Although they may want to love the Lord and serve Him, yet deep within their being is a supreme desire to be vindicated.
That was the problem of Judas Iscariot. He must have thought that he was pushing Jesus Christ to the place where He would either have to perform or stop talking. One way or another, He would have to be the King and kill those Romans. It is likely that he thought he was doing the right thing. He probably was not conscious that Satan had entered his heart that night of the Last Supper. He was not fully aware of it. Nevertheless, he was conscious of his need of vindication. Wherever an unforgiving, vindictive spirit exists, that person invariably becomes a channel for the work of Satan.
Do not allow your feelings to be hurt; do not reach the place where you feel that you need to be vindicated, that you must be honored, that everyone must respect what you do. There is one important law to remember in walking with God. No one should expect to receive even a thank you. There is to be no respect of persons on this point. As much as possible, we should avoid giving people praise or glory except when speaking before the rest of the Body in order to present a burden of prayer for them. This might be done for a man who has worked as unto the Lord until he is ready to drop. We would then ask the Body to understand that and to start praying for him and blessing him, to appreciate what he has done lest he become a casuality. That is not exactly praising him; it is a ministry to him. Watch that you do not come to the place where you feel you must be appreciated and receive thanks, or God will put you in a place where no one shows any appreciation and no one gives you any thanks. You may want to be vindicated; but in the desire to be vindicated, something will come forth through which the enemy can really work.
When a man of God is shamefully persecuted with false accusations because of the calling of God upon him, he may be deeply hurt and humiliated to think that after walking in a worthy manner he should ever be treated that way. Yet it will be very good for his pride. In being brought low, he will learn that it does not matter to God whether or not he is ever vindicated before anyone. He will learn to walk with God unappreciated, and simply go on and serve Him.
If you are falsely accused, no one will hang a sign on you that says, “This fellow in the middle is the innocent one; the other two are thieves.” You will be numbered with the transgressors. No one will say that you are innocent; no one will vindicate you—in any case, not at that time. But when your obedience has been perfected, when you are truly walking with God, He will avenge all disobedience.
We are looking for the day of God’s vindication. We have not experienced it yet, though we have labored and prayed. It would seem that God has not paid any attention. He is paying attention, but behind the delay is the fact that He has been waiting, before bringing judgment, until our obedience is complete. God, who searches our hearts, will know when our obedience has been completed. The Lord is ready to open the door to vindicate all the vicious things that have been done against His people. He is ready to establish His people as a testimony in the earth, as a glory and a praise to His name. Do you think you are humble enough? Do you think you are pure enough? Are you working on it? If you want to see Satan defeated, then as viciously as you desire his defeat, you must also seek to bring down the faults in your flesh which prevent God from opening the door of judgment against Satan. Does that mean that the devil is in your flesh? No, but until your obedience is complete, God is not going to judge the disobedience that has come against you.
Must we go on to perfection before we can be agents of judgment in the hand of the Lord? According to the Scriptures, Peter had many problems which needed to be settled before God could use him in the judgment we read of in the fifth chapter of Acts. There was nothing vindictive in his spirit when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead at his feet. He did not feel that he had to be vindicated. He did not feel, “How dare you hold back that money from me! I wanted that money! I needed that money! Now drop dead!” That was not the case at all. The judgment was completely impersonal because his spirit was so right that his feelings were not included in it. He told them, “You have lied to the Holy Spirit.” In lying to Peter they were lying to an apostolic function; he did not own any part of it on the human level. His spirit was right in the situation.
This does not mean that Peter did not have other problems later, and that there was nothing else to be worked out in his life. Later Paul said in his letter to the Galatians that he had to rebuke Peter to his face because he was to be blamed for a deception. Around the Gentiles, Peter freely ate their food with them and enjoyed himself. But when the Jewish Christians came, he made a distinction: in order to appear strictly kosher, he withdrew from the Gentiles, which made them feel badly. Peter then had to open his heart to Paul’s rebuke. This shows that he was not wholly perfected, but at least in any area where judgment had previously come in the Church, his spirit was right. His spirit had reached the place where there was nothing demanding vindication or rising up in bitterness. It was pure before God.
We today may not be completely perfect, but at least we, too, must have a right spirit when we enter into the phases of God’s end-time judgment.