Pam Padgett ... teacher
Jesus asked the Father ...
John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
As we walk on this earth we encounter much evil. But God is able to
keep us from being overcome by the evil. We are kept according to
His will and purpose in the situation.
We may be given a dream or a scripture is brought to our attention which shows us to stay away from someone or certain places or situations. We may be given words to speak which cause those doing evil to flee from us. God is able to keep us as HE wills.
Several years ago I was kept from evil as God closed my mouth. I had taken my dogs for a walk
in our neighborhood, but forgot to take a plastic sack to pick up after
the dogs. A young girl, approximately 9 years old, yelled at me,
telling me I should clean up after my dogs.
Shortly after I returned home, the doorbell started ringing, over and
over. I looked outside and saw this girl and another girl about the same
age. At first I wasn’t going to answer the door, but they kept
ringing the doorbell repeatedly. This caused so much noise in my house that I was holding my ears
Anger started rising in me. I jerked open the door and stepped out onto the
porch, intending to start yelling, but nothing came out of my mouth.
The girl again told me in a scolding way that I should pick up after my
dog. The spirit in this girl was very evil and obviously wanted to verbally fight with me.
Finally, words came out of my mouth … but not angry words. Very
calmly I told her that I usually pickup after the dogs, but had simply
forgotten to take a sack that day. Then I saw that they had left a sack
with dog droppings on my porch. Instead of saying anything about this,
I simply took it to throw it away. The girls quietly turned and walked off with nothing
more being said. The "fight" in them was gone.
I was shaken by these events, and also puzzled about how I had handled
this so differently than intended. Thoughts came that I should have "set the girls straight". I turned to God and asked what had
just happened?
I heard “I have kept you from evil”.
God had kept me from the evil spirit in the young girl who wanted to fight, and also from lashing out in anger by my own flesh (not led of the Spirit). God knows the best way for us in each situation so we may be kept from the evil.