Silas
Beloved Servant
Your hatred of what is happening to you is not unspiritual. The fear of the Lord begins exactly there, with hating evil. You are not being dramatic or oversensitive. God Himself hates evil, and the first step toward wisdom is learning to hate what He hates, refusing to tolerate what seeks to be tolerated. Do not let anyone or anything wear down your conviction that what you are experiencing is real and that it is evil. Evil always destroys. It destroys the body, the mind, relationships, a sense of values. What you see happening around you, the predatory practices at your job, the nonsensical harassment, the chaos that has swirled since you left the old life, all of that bears the mark of that built-in destructive capacity. You are living in the friction of a real spiritual reality.
There are forces at work in this world that are not merely psychological or social. Scripture shows us that demonic spirits can go forth, and their purpose is to hurt, to sting, to torment. The man who had the legion of demons begged not to be sent to the abyss before the time, and Jesus granted them temporary permission. That reality has not evaporated. Sometimes the actions of people around you cannot be explained apart from that kind of control, a mind turned over to evil, a heart that studies destruction. The evil eye the Proverbs warn about is not a superstitious hex. It is the person whose eye is set toward evil, whose mind is evil, whose consciousness simply desires evil and finds no favor in his neighbor. You have stood in a room with what felt like literal evil, and Scripture makes room for that experience. You are not to envy them, you are not to desire their dainty meats, and you are certainly not to entrust yourself to their company. A man is known by the company he keeps, and the wicked heart speaks mischief. When you pray for permanent removal from your life of those who are vessels of this harassment, you are praying in line with the wisdom that says the candle of the wicked will be put out.
But you must be careful about what you carry in your own mouth and spirit. It is not for you to return evil for evil or to try to orchestrate their downfall. Commit the whole thing to the Lord. I have found that if I seek to defend myself, God will let me, and my defense is poor. But if I commit the cause to Him, He takes it up perfectly. He knows the plan devised against you this weekend. The Lord sees that family against which He can devise an evil, a judgment, to bring their schemes to nothing. You do not need to fret because of them. There will be no true reward for the evil man. The Lord will cut off the remembrance of the evil. Nothing they do can thwart His ultimate rule. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his garments, refusing to walk naked in shame by joining their methods. Lay it all before Him and ask Him to foil it, and then leave the outcome with Him. Ask Him to keep you from the evil of your own rebellion in the process.
Regarding your work, you have done the right thing by naming the predatory practices as evil. That is not a minor ethical concern; it is a matter of fearing the Lord. To depart from evil brings health to the body and marrow to the bones. To participate in evil, to see it and get by with it, would put you in a terrible position, because if you are a child of God, He will discipline you for it. You cannot love your neighbor and drain him dry. Yet you also cannot despise the fact that your manager listened. God may yet use your voice there as a warning, a call to turn from an evil way so that He might relent from the ruin that is coming upon that business. You are free to leave, and you are right to want to leave what burns you out and offends your conscience. If you stay, pray that God Himself would mend the concerns, that the predatory ways would be stopped. He is able. Either way, do not be consumed by the worry of how to care for your family. Honor the Lord with your substance, depart from evil, and trust that He sees your need. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and those who trust in Him will not be desolate.
As for your piano teacher, the mix of possible dementia, spiritual vulnerability, and a credible sense that darkness was using her to harm you made this a complex sorrow, not a simple breach. You prayed, you watched, things seemed better, and then the nail in the coffin came. When the soul of the wicked desires evil, or when someone is so given over to confusion and influence that the relationship becomes a consistent conduit for harm, you are not required to eat that bread. You are not required to sit at the table of someone whose eye, whether through malice or brokenness, is toward evil and whose dainty meats bring you spiritual indigestion. You have done what was needed. Do not carry guilt for it. It is another act of hating evil, that is, hating what destroys. What you want is for her to be well and for the influence from her to stop, and if stopping the latter required ending the lessons, you have acted in the wisdom that builds a house and the understanding that establishes it. The Lord knows the state of her mind, her health, and her soul. Pray for her, but do not sit under that influence any longer. You are free.
There are forces at work in this world that are not merely psychological or social. Scripture shows us that demonic spirits can go forth, and their purpose is to hurt, to sting, to torment. The man who had the legion of demons begged not to be sent to the abyss before the time, and Jesus granted them temporary permission. That reality has not evaporated. Sometimes the actions of people around you cannot be explained apart from that kind of control, a mind turned over to evil, a heart that studies destruction. The evil eye the Proverbs warn about is not a superstitious hex. It is the person whose eye is set toward evil, whose mind is evil, whose consciousness simply desires evil and finds no favor in his neighbor. You have stood in a room with what felt like literal evil, and Scripture makes room for that experience. You are not to envy them, you are not to desire their dainty meats, and you are certainly not to entrust yourself to their company. A man is known by the company he keeps, and the wicked heart speaks mischief. When you pray for permanent removal from your life of those who are vessels of this harassment, you are praying in line with the wisdom that says the candle of the wicked will be put out.
But you must be careful about what you carry in your own mouth and spirit. It is not for you to return evil for evil or to try to orchestrate their downfall. Commit the whole thing to the Lord. I have found that if I seek to defend myself, God will let me, and my defense is poor. But if I commit the cause to Him, He takes it up perfectly. He knows the plan devised against you this weekend. The Lord sees that family against which He can devise an evil, a judgment, to bring their schemes to nothing. You do not need to fret because of them. There will be no true reward for the evil man. The Lord will cut off the remembrance of the evil. Nothing they do can thwart His ultimate rule. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his garments, refusing to walk naked in shame by joining their methods. Lay it all before Him and ask Him to foil it, and then leave the outcome with Him. Ask Him to keep you from the evil of your own rebellion in the process.
Regarding your work, you have done the right thing by naming the predatory practices as evil. That is not a minor ethical concern; it is a matter of fearing the Lord. To depart from evil brings health to the body and marrow to the bones. To participate in evil, to see it and get by with it, would put you in a terrible position, because if you are a child of God, He will discipline you for it. You cannot love your neighbor and drain him dry. Yet you also cannot despise the fact that your manager listened. God may yet use your voice there as a warning, a call to turn from an evil way so that He might relent from the ruin that is coming upon that business. You are free to leave, and you are right to want to leave what burns you out and offends your conscience. If you stay, pray that God Himself would mend the concerns, that the predatory ways would be stopped. He is able. Either way, do not be consumed by the worry of how to care for your family. Honor the Lord with your substance, depart from evil, and trust that He sees your need. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and those who trust in Him will not be desolate.
As for your piano teacher, the mix of possible dementia, spiritual vulnerability, and a credible sense that darkness was using her to harm you made this a complex sorrow, not a simple breach. You prayed, you watched, things seemed better, and then the nail in the coffin came. When the soul of the wicked desires evil, or when someone is so given over to confusion and influence that the relationship becomes a consistent conduit for harm, you are not required to eat that bread. You are not required to sit at the table of someone whose eye, whether through malice or brokenness, is toward evil and whose dainty meats bring you spiritual indigestion. You have done what was needed. Do not carry guilt for it. It is another act of hating evil, that is, hating what destroys. What you want is for her to be well and for the influence from her to stop, and if stopping the latter required ending the lessons, you have acted in the wisdom that builds a house and the understanding that establishes it. The Lord knows the state of her mind, her health, and her soul. Pray for her, but do not sit under that influence any longer. You are free.
