Have you ever tried to fix some problem with your computer by running some clean up or fix it program, only to find out that your computer runs worse afterwards? Sometimes when we try to improve it by running another program that makes changes, these changes that are made alter in some way how the computer was working before we made the changes. We find that we have to undo some of the new changes so that our system gets to a point where it´s running the way it should.
Read Matthew 12:43-45
It may seem that Jesus began to talk about a different theme all of a sudden.
Jesus was rebuking the outspoken leaders of the church or ¨generation¨ in their failure to recognize that the whole Bible with all its prophets had been pointing toward the day when Jesus would come. He used ancient accounts to show that the disbelieving people would be compared with and not match up against the faith shown in those stories.
Then all of a sudden Matthew shares these words of Jesus where He is talking about evil spirits. Apparently when a cleaning takes place within the heart of an individual, Jesus claims that the unclean spirit of that revived believer leaves the individual long enough to find out that when it returns, its victim is more refined. The evil nature finds again its home but now with room to bring more of its friends to make themselves at home inside the unsuspecting host.
Now talking of evil spirits would not be any of our favorite topics to spend much time, but Jesus refers to it here personally, so we might do well to perk up our ears and pray for understanding.
Through prayer and a pure intention towards coming closer to the heart of Jesus, perhaps we may make a connection for this text and some healing could follow.
When Jesus uses terms like ¨this generation¨, perhaps we would like to push the direction of those words off onto someone else. Unfortunately though, whenever Jesus uses these words, we can almost always see Him speaking clearer to us today than He might have been doing to another people at another time in history.
So for the sake of argument let us apply the words ¨this generation¨ to our current situation in the world around us today.
Jesus was saying in verses 39 to 42 that no new proof would be given except that what was happening to Him in that He would be killed and raised again to life like Jonah had been inside a whale. Then He showed us that an attitude of withholding our best judgment would make us look worse than others before who stepped out in faith toward God.
Even though Jesus seems to take a turn in His message when He begins to mention the condition of men´s souls and evil spirits, He has not changed the direction of to whom He was speaking.
Jesus was instructing ¨this generation,¨ or rather you and me. He never lost His course of thought and was constantly and gently herding us back to Himself. If we accept the warning to be directed at you and me, then we start to be aware of our own unbelief. We begin to realize those moments when we search for proof from God instead of stepping out in faith and throwing ourselves helplessly upon Him for everything.
As we continue following along the footsteps of Jesus, with our gaze completely directed to Him, we pass on into the text of today carrying that same eye for what might be happening to us. It is altogether possible for us to experience God in some way, like perhaps making a new commitment to God or the initial step to finding Jesus. Here we would be like the soul where the evil spirit had left.
Now Jesus warns that what could happen unknown to us is that even now in ¨this generation¨ this old evil nature or spirit we had before may find its way back in and bring with it more clever and refined spirits to complicate the matter. Our condition, even though we swept our hearts clean and think we are out of hot water, we have only upped the stakes and made ourselves susceptible to new traps from our evil tendencies.
Dear Jesus, please open our understandings in increasing degrees each and every day. Let us realize and work with the Spirit as He tries always to make everything personal between You and us. Never let us shift the blame but take all instruction we possibly can towards the purifying of our natures. Any step closer to You is a good step. Please help us to lift up again to You those things we cannot see and therefore step out in our faith in You. Become our all, so that we give anything to make room only for you in our lives. With concerning ourselves with Your filling presence, let there be no room for any of our evil natures to creep back in. Then we can be guarding our hearts from the guilt of our ¨evil generation.¨
In Jesus name we pray and place our hope,
Amen
Scott W
Searching For Christ 
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