As I was updating my email preferences and cleaning out the barrage of stuff I don’t read, I heard an ugly voice in my head say, “Dumbass.”

It certainly stood out from my mundane thoughts.  What in the world was that?

“Jesus,” I said from my mountain, “who is this and why do I hear his voice when I don’t even want him in my kingdom?”

Instantly, I remembered a coworker I’ll call Tom, who I’d been chatting with recently.  He’s a retired vet, an avid hunter, and fisherman and his words are sometimes not just colorful, but pointedly demeaning.  This word would have rolled off his tongue easily which is an odd dichotomy since he is quiet,  sweet, and often generous.  I didn’t think about his language at the time because … well, face it, vets, hunters, fishermen, and other types of “manly men” are often verbally spicy.  I’m not offended.  However, something was different about his words.

But that was several days ago, maybe even a week.  So I took the instant memory as a cue from Father exposing a new parasite engaging me.  There must have been an ugly buggar riding on Tom, one who makes house calls to people Tom meets.

I opened my imagination canvas so Father could paint the solution picture I’d need to depose this new intruder.   It was a large iron gate / fence set up at the edge of my kingdom.  It pushed him out and kept him from reentering.  And I locked it.

My next thought was the scripture about Satan being locked up for a thousand years.  Revelation 20:1-3.  Since The Kingdom is within us as Jesus said, the battles that rage against evil have to be within us.  After all, we cannot battle evil’s raging within others.  Sure, we can help if they ask, but we cannot depose evil monarchy’s that other’s support.  However, as we find it’s strongholds and banish them within ourselves, our realization of The Kingdom opens wider.  Then it begins to manifest in our physical lives and in the world around us (our kingdom) by spilling over onto others.

So by locking up this little buggar, I had locked up a part of Satan’s evil.  Maybe he wasn’t the whole evil horde, but one by one I’ve been locking them up for years.

Then this occurred to me.  There aren’t an infinite number of these guys.  They cannot reproduce themselves, or create more.  Therefore, each of us could conceivably someday lock up the last one.  It would signify Jesus on His throne in our temple, ruling and reigning for a thousand years.

It explains what the battle of Armeggedon is truly all about, and that final destruction of evil is within ourselves.

Maybe some of this has entered my mind before but not this vividly.  So I thought I’d share it with you.  Maybe Father has shown you this already and you’re smiling at me.  That’s ok. I’ll take it. 🙂

Blessings on your journey.  Thanks for sharing mine.

Faith