The devil hates the individual for many reasons beyond our understanding. Two are clear.
1. He hates all individuals of temporal existence, because they are called to be children of God, still having the opportunity to trust in the Father, follow the Son and be guided by the holy Spirit to a life everlasting with Him, a life the devil has forfeited.
2. He hates all individuals, because the Father has given them the Word of God. They have been given His Son, Jesus Christ, to follow in preaching the Word, as every individual is commissioned to do. They have also been given the guidance of God Himself, through the indwelling of the holy Spirit, to bring the Good News to other individuals so that they too may become children of God.
But the devil hates the family more. The God-given family structure supports individuals by providing for their daily needs - physical, emotional and spiritual - enabling them to reach out to other individuals and families with care and with the Word of God including the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The devil’s hatred is even greater toward the extended family. He has focused his attention on this multi-generational unit over that past two centuries, and he has succeeded in destroying most of the extended families in America. The devil has worked toward its extinction as a functioning unit, because the extended family has even greater capacity to support its members in spreading the Good News to individuals and other families.
However, the devil reserves legions of fallen angels for his most important evil mission - to destroy communities of Christian, extended families who live in close proximity, having as a common interest their desire to: follow Christ by teaching the Word of God, sharing the Gospel of Christ, and healing the sick and the lame through the power of the holy Spirit, giving the glory to the Father - as Christ commanded. For it is Christian communities that have the greatest combined God-given resources to send out missionaries to those that have not heard the Word, and dedicated workers to those in need that have heard the Word, but have not listened.
Most fearsome to the devil, however, because of its infinite power to spread the Good News, would be a unified Body of Christ. If Christian communities, following Christ and responding to His Great Commission, were to join together in the harmony Christ prayed for before His crucifixion, the devil’s battle to destroy those called to be children of God would certainly be lost.
Then why is it, that the words "unity in the Body of Christ" strike fear into the hearts of most Christians, regardless of their denomination? Instead they build walls between their organizations and avoid even the concept of community-life within them. They leave their extended families and even their nuclear families. They divide themselves until they are nearly powerless, powerless to share their faith or live it.
Don’t let the devil win any longer in your life, your family or your congregation. Return to your extended family or form a new one with Christian friends. Join a small group and consider forming a Christian community, as defined above. Promote unity between communities and between denominations. Work with the holy Spirit in the unification of the Body of Christ.
John Beiswenger
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