Unprovoked Attacks

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Isaiah 59:6-8 6 Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works;  Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.7 Their feet run to evil,  And they make haste to shed innocent blood;Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;  Wasting and destruction are in their paths.8 The way of peace they have not known,  And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths;  Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

Many times when I pray, I pray in a theme.  This week I began to ask the Lord for peace, and justice.    As I begin to pray for peace and rest from all the unrest around the world, I asked the Lord why he allows people who thrive on chaos, and unrest to continue to upset the world.   (Sometimes prayer can also be therapy for me).  I gave the Lord some glaring examples of this complaint, and then I went on to my other requests.

The answer came to me when I read this scripture in Isa. 59.  (This was an answer to my question, if not a swift answer to all of my petitions).  So the Holy Ghost reminded me of this declaration in Psalms.

Psalms 46:10 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Sometimes God will give you a word in order to assist you with your wait.  This makes it all worthwhile and gives you what I call ‘the peace of knowing’.  That is knowing that He is still God, and He will work things out.

Isaiah chapter 59 begins with a reminder about the God that we serve:

Isaiah 59:1 ​1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

That is good news right?  But then the Lord goes on to rebuke Israel and tells them that the reason He seems so far away, and not listening to them is because of their iniquity.  The Lord was specifically referring to the sins of injustice and lies.

Isaiah 59:4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth:  they trust in vanity, and speak lies;  they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

The Lord goes on to talk about the many ways that evil people inflict pain on the innocent.  He then concludes by reassuring the innocent that they would be avenged.

Isaiah 59:20 20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the LORD.

You can be attacked without provocation.  I am reminded of how David had to endure the wrath of someone who just didn’t like him even though he did his best to please him.  King Saul had David on his staff for one reason.   David’s music and songs were so anointed that the evil spirits would at least temporarily leave Saul and give him moments of peace.

Saul could find rest when David played, but that didn’t stop him from being jealous of him.  There are evil spirits and there are evil people.  In spite of David’s stellar service to the King the bible tells us that Saul threw a javelin at him more than once to kill him. (See 1 Sam 18: 10-11).  Saul was an evil person.

Now I am sure that David must have been thinking to himself, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’  Have you ever asked yourself the same question?  Here is a revelation.  You don’t have to do anything to warrant an attack by the enemy.  The devil’s kingdom hates you for who you are, and for the anointing of God that is on your life.   Darkness hates light, and you are light!

It is very easy to forget this when you are under attack, but the truth of the matter is that the kingdom of darkness will attack you unprovoked!  It’s what they do, and who they are.  And they will use anyone to do it, (even a king).

Always remember that this is spiritual warfare.  Just that little spin in thinking about being attacked can make all the difference in how you go through it.  Paul considered his afflictions and tribulations to be honorable once he understood that the Lord was still on his side.

Let me state what is not always so obvious.  The kingdom of darkness has human agents that will attack you.  There are demons, and witches, and warlocks, and people who embody evil.  You may not believe in the demonic, but I assure you that they believe in you, and the anointing that is on you.

Whenever we only blame people for attacks on us, we minimize the reality of spiritual warfare, and we neglect the possibility that the devil might be behind the attack.  Remember that Jesus said men would hate us simply because of our association with Him.

Jesus cast demons out of two men, and the demons asked permission of Him to go into a herd of swine.  (Herd immunity, or mentality, I guess).  Anyway, those pigs decided that it would be better to commit suicide than to live with demons, so they jumped off a cliff into the sea and drowned.  Everyone should have been happy to have been freed from this attack of the enemy but they weren’t.  The town turned on Jesus and asked him to leave. (See Mt. 8:28-33).

A similar thing happened in the book of Acts Chapter 16: 16-24.   Paul and Silas cast a demon out of a young lady.  But because men had enslaved her using her for their own twisted purposes, they had Paul and Silas flogged and imprisoned.  Sometimes it would seem, no good deed goes unpunished.

You don’t have to do anything to be attacked.  Just being who you are, (a child of God), places you on the list for provocation.  I know that you know this, but I want you to remember it the next time it happens.  It’s not you.  It’s the anointing.   Try not to take it personally.

These are the same kind of folks Isaiah talked about in our text:

Isa. 59:7 Their feet run to evil,  And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;  Wasting and destruction are in their paths.

Hundreds of years later Jesus talked about people like this saying that their purpose is to steal, kill and destroy.  Different times, same demons.  But I assure you that their day is coming.

Isaiah 59:20 20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the LORD.

I encourage you to practice the art of ‘knowing peace’.  It does take practice, but soon when you are attacked by someone unprovoked, you will recognize that it might just be the enemy trying to dim the light of Christ in you.  ‘All is fair in love and war’, it has been said.  Stop waiting for the devil to be fair.  Stop waiting for life to be fair.  This is war, and the attacks many time come even if you do nothing but be saved.  So just be saved, and wait on the ultimate deliverance from the Lord Jesus Christ!  Not only in your situation, but for the world at large.  The Lord will have His Day!

Matthew 10:22 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.