It’s like there’s a virus in the system that we just can’t seem to shake. Because, of course, there is.
Even writers like Steven Pressfield, who don’t profess a Christian faith, acknowledge that there’s a force in the universe that works against good when it comes to creating enduring art.
C.S. Lewis, of course, treated the subject of the presence of evil in the world masterfully in the Screwtape Letters, written during the ravages of the second world war. It’s a book that has not lost its punch seven and a half decades after its publication.
Going back centuries further, you can read Thomas Brook’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices—an astonishingly insightful book (thank you to Tim Keller for the reference).
The key to overcoming the activity and influence of evil in your life and your world, of course, is to recognize it.
When you expose it to the light of Christ, evil loses its power.
So, in the hopes of shedding some light on evil’s activity, here are some of the signs I see that show evil is alive and well in the lives of leaders and churches.
1. YOU’RE BEING DIVISIVE
If there’s one strategy Satan comes back to again and again, it’s creating division. And why wouldn’t he? It works.
Strangely, in our culture, some Christians wear their divisiveness as a badge of honor. It’s not. It’s actually a badge of evil.
How do we know division is a sign of the activity and presence of evil?
Paul actually defines which human behavior is motivated by God and which is motivated by the enemy in Galatians 5.
He begins by listing the characteristics of people whose lives are under the influence of evil.
