Proof is in the Pudding

Yesterday as I was studying in Luke and found a section which I simply could not follow. As many Christians know, understanding the Word of God is a work of God The Holy Spirit. As I picked up this morning I was again dumbfounded and unable to follow what Our Lord was teaching the people. I was taking notes and the notes were mostly questions that I hoped to ask someone about, or figure out at a later date.

The mistake I was making was trying to learn in my strength. Big mistake... Believers and non-believers often claim the Bible is too hard to understand. Non-believers at least have an excuse, they don't have the Holy Spirit. Believers on the other hand do have the Holy Spirit. If they are having a hard time understanding something it could simply be that God doesn't want this part of the Word revealed to them yet. However, it is more often than not simply that the believer hasn't asked for understanding and is not letting Him do a work in their learning. This was what I was doing. Shortly I noticed my mistake and asked for understanding.

Immediately I started to gain understanding, and it grew over the next hour. This was answered prayer, practical and effective! This section of Scripture may be very simple for you readers, but I am going to cover it anyway.

So let's look at Luke 11:14-26 Once again Jesus was being accused of driving demons out by the power of the devil. Jesus answers with the simple answer, that can be read of several times in the Word, of a house divided against it's self can not stand. There are several "lessons" in this section but I want to deal with only one. Jesus explains how you can tell if the work was done by God or the devil. Jesus describes the possessed person as a "dwelling" and the demon as a "strong man" who is overcome by a stronger man and therefore driven out of the dwelling. If the demon is driven out, it will find no comfort in the air and will seek to return to the dwelling it knows. If the work was done by Beelzebub the demon will find the dwelling swept clean and well prepared. The demon will gather with it 7 more which are even more evil than it's self and return to dwell in the person again. In this case the state of the person will be worse than it was in the first place. If the work is of God then the demon will be driven out and will not be able to return as the person (or dwelling) will then be protected by One Who is Stronger.

Clearly if Jesus does the work by "the finger of God" then the person will be better off. Jesus does complete works.

I'm not sure why I found this so hard to understand, but I couldn't put together the story and the point He was making. Thankfully, God answers prayers!! Thank You Father!