Evil surmisings\u2014unfounded suspicions about fellow believers\u2014can plague the mind of even the most consecrated Christian. 1 Corinthians 10:13 spills a secret: \u201cNo temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man<\/i>.<\/i>\u201d Therefore, since evil surmisings qualifies as a temptation (of the mind more than the flesh), you can bet that you\u2019re not the only one getting tempted to submit to such suspicions.<\/p>\n
Evil surmisings come in an assortment of shapes, sizes, and colors, with one custom-made for you. These thoughts can be subtle—he’s so boring; he can’t possibly be used of God<\/i> or blatant—I know<\/em> she’s jealous of me; she’s operating in a controlling \u2018Jezebel spirit\u2019.<\/i> The types and textures of evil surmisings are indeed without number. <\/i><\/p>\n How do you distinguish between an evil suspicion and the leading of the Holy Spirit? It\u2019s usually not clear-cut at the outset, so from the get-go, the method of attack you need to take, of course, is to first of all, pray. Lift up the individual or group to the Lord; you even have permission to complain to Him if you must, but He will, nonetheless, expect you to come to the point where you will believe the best of them and let your faith work through love (see 1 Corinthians 13:5-6 and Galatians 5:6).<\/p>\n God is good and quite practical. He isn\u2019t pleased when you are hurt; however, neither will He coddle you or entitle you to cling to your resentment. If you do<\/i> feel entitled to your bitterness or hatred toward someone\u2014an individual or an entire group\u2014God\u2019s not in that. You will find yourself stuck in one place without growth or further grace when you cling to the title deed of your resentment. Is that really what you want for your life?<\/p>\n What if the suspicion is actually the prompting of the Holy Spirit, warning you to avoid a certain business, fellowship, relationship, or endeavor? Whether the thought arises from the Lord or not, first of all, pray. The Spirit of God knows how to make clear to you the way in which you should go, and at times He will steer you away from people or places in order to protect you or to aid your growth in grace. When you recognize His leading and obey it, much hinges on what you do next. Will you continue in life, thankful for His direction, and refuse to entertain suspicions about the detour He prompted? Or will you use His kind re-routing as an occasion to badmouth and spread suspicions about a fellow believer or church?<\/p>\n Again, even if God reveals something to you as you follow Him, does that mean He wants it blabbed all over town or posted on Facebook? Does that mean you\u2019ve become some sort of spiritual swami, given access to the secret intentions of others? Are you so impressed with your hearing from God that you think you are some kind of spiritual prodigy? As ugly as it sounds, these are some of the snares any one of us can stumble into after hearing from God. You must be alert, both coming and going.<\/p>\n God\u2019s plan is to lead you and me throughout our lives. This is His idea of the normal Christian life. His will for you is to be shrewd in discernment so you can avoid pitfalls, distractions, and deception. But His will is also for you to be harmless as a dove and to walk in a high level of forgiveness, love, and respect for others (see Matthew 10:16).<\/p>\n You can live this way by refusing to yield to the lure of evil surmisings. Pray, forgive, and follow God. It\u2019s your<\/em> mind, and you have the right to take control of the mental strategies the devil has designed against you to pull you off course. Martin Luther said it something like this, “You cannot control the birds flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair.”<\/p>\n The degree to which you resist evil surmisings and choose rather to pray, forgive, and obey the Lord will also be the degree to which you will grow in accuracy and the clean discernment of God.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026pulling down of strong holds;<\/i> casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.<\/i>\u201d 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5, KJV<\/p>\n Praise God for the defeat of evil surmisings!<\/p>\n Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Evil surmisings\u2014unfounded suspicions about fellow believers\u2014can plague the mind of even the most consecrated Christian. 1 Corinthians 10:13 spills a secret: \u201cNo temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.\u201d Therefore, since evil surmisings qualifies as a temptation (of the mind more than the flesh), you can bet that you\u2019re not the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victory-over-evil-surmisings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}