Why Does Evil Happen? Part 1

The question of why evil happens, whether or not you know Christ, is a timeless universal question. It is one that needs to be addressed because our hearts want to be able to trust a good God Who can protect us, heal us, restore us… As with any deep God issue, there is room for mystery. This not a cop out, but a simple acknowledgment that we cannot grasp the entirety of the universe, God and what He accomplished. However, there are some points that help to settle us so we can live our lives free from the fear of evil.

In particular, I feel there are 2 underlying issues that help us to grapple with this question. The first is that people do not have a revelation of their authority to stand up against evil and stop it/truncate it. The second is that people do not have a revelation of their righteousness, so sin has sway over them. I will address this first issue in Part 1 of this discussion and unpack the second in Part 2.

With the first, God gave humankind dominion (ruler-ship) over EVERYTHING EXCEPT one another (Gen. 1:26). When people dominate, intimidate, manipulate and control one another, they are operating under the sway of witchcraft. That is not to say that we don’t influence one another, but in that godly influence, the underlying motive is authentic love. God is not a god of “other” control. He is a god of massive self-control (Gal. 5:23). That is part of the fruit of the Spirit. He is Love (1 John 4:8). Love is not love if it is not free NOT to love. We are not robots. We are free NOT to love Him. We are free to choose to bow to the principle of sin vs. Love.

When we do not have a revelation that, because of the cross, we are one with Love (Romans 6:5, 1 Cor. 6:15), we are unaware or lack confidence in our authority (Luke 10:19, John 14:13)  It is our imparted authority, as a believer’s birthright, that forces the enemy, who is deceiving the world, to bow. It causes people, who are under the stupor of the enemy, to wake up so they can choose not to cooperate with his agenda of stealing, killing and destroying.

As a body, we all have areas of influence where we can stand up and force evil to bow. This starts with ourselves, first and foremost (self-control), and expands out to our families, communities, cities, and out to the world, with lessening authority as we move further out. When God’s kids fail to operate in their authority, evil is allowed to operate. For more information about this,  I would recommend “The Believer’s Authority” by Andrew Wommack.

The enemy roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). That means there are people that he may not devour. Those are the ones, who stand up and say, “NO, not me or mine/people in my sphere of influence” When we have the revelation of our oneness with Christ, we are confident He will back us up, because His authority is our authority in our metron in His name. If all of God’s kids stood up in their authority, our spheres of influence would overlap and the enemy and his evil would not be able to manifest. Instead, the sons and daughters of God would manifest. Earth would look like heaven because God’s will would be released throughout His creation through His kids.  

In reality, if you look in the scope of history, the kingdom of God is violently manifesting (Isaiah 9:6-7, Matt. 6:10, Matt. 11:12). It is expanding so that evil is increasingly much less prevalent. Christ’s sacrifice is really working. These days are statistically MUCH better than the good old days! If you want more on this I would refer you to Jonathan Welton’s book, “Normal Christianity”. So encouraging!

And I do hope you are encouraged. Be sure to check out the next blog in this series where I unpack the second key reason behind why evil is allowed to happen.