WE'RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

WE’RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

Many years ago, I read Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam

by Zainab Salbi, the daughter of Saddam Hussein’s personal pilot. She described the terror he inflicted on those around him:

“Fear of Saddam took over every Iraqi heart and mind. He was everywhere and anywhere, and any stray negative thought about him made us watch our backs. As a child, I grew up watching hours and hours of TV coverage of him surprising families in the middle of the afternoon by entering their kitchens and opening their refrigerators. I guess this was a dictator’s version of a reality show; the entire country could peer into people’s cupboards and see what they were having for lunch. I didn’t understand why he revealed the intimate lives of people on national TV until the night my family and I had dinner with Saddam.

“It wasn’t one dinner but years of lunches and dinners, because my father was his private pilot. At times, my parents would be in their bed falling asleep when suddenly they had to wake up and entertain Saddam in the middle of the night, making sure that they looked bright and excited.

“He was charismatic and engaging, but he also spread fear. In the midst of one family lunch he asked everyone what they thought of Napoleon. At face value, you would think that’s just a lunch conversation among friends. And that is indeed how one friend answered, saying: “Napoleon is a man who rolled down from the hill of power as fast he rose up to it.” Saddam answered: “Are you referring to Napoleon or are you referring to Napoleon [referring to himself]?” If there is such thing as air leaving the room, then that was that moment. His switch from friendliness to anger was common, and we all knew he killed friends and relatives; no one would be spared.”

Salib’s book is fascinating, but more insightful to me was when I experienced being in the presence of someone who exhibited similar characteristics to Hussein! This person knew very private things about the people who worked under him, and he used the knowledge of those things to intimidate and control. I believe it was evil spirits that told him these things, because they were intimate things that no one spoke about, and certainly not to him.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” At first, this looks like it may be a contradiction to other verses in the Bible, like Isaiah 43:19, where God says: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

There are no contradictions in the Bible, just verses and concepts and phrases we may not yet understand. This is one of those.

“Under the sun” is a phrase that is peculiar to Ecclesiastes and is used 29 times. It is equivalent to “upon the earth,” and it refers to all that is connected with earthly things as such, and with man apart from God.” (E.W. Bullinger Companion Bible KJV).

Separated from God, there is and never will be anything new. God is the only creator. The devil can’t create anything. So when we learn to recognize a demon or a demonic mechanism, it will always operate in the same way as the Bible describes it – there are variations, but the basics are ever the same. Demons exhibit the very same characteristics in leaders of countries as they do in leaders of three or four people or even less. The same kind of evil people and evil ways we read about in the Old Testament exist today. When we examine and recognize the evil we read about in the Bible, we will understand and recognize the evils we see today. Anything the devil pulls into this world now has been done before.

The devil is not a creator. If we’ve seen him operate in a certain evil way one time, we recognize when we see it again—nothing new.  That’s why God reminds us in 2 Corinthians 2:11: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

We’re smart! We actually know more than we think we know. We’re smarter spiritually than we give ourselves credit for!

When you think about who we are and the possibilities we have creatively, it’s amazing. God has not stopped creating! What God was in the beginning, He is now. Yes, He uses the same elements that He originally created, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says He can’t create more.

Just a few examples from the New Testament: Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Did you know that the word “Christ” means “the anointed one”? That same anointing is in us. Think about that! It’s a spiritual anointing, different from anything else.

In Psalm 51:10, David asks God to “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” He can do that. In Isaiah 57:18, God says: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.” You see, God is still creating, and even so far as to be creating what we dare to say. So, let’s dare to say what God says: He is healing me, and I have peace!

With the devil, there is no new thing under the sun. It’s all old and rotten. Use the Bible to get smart. You’re already way smarter than you know. Believe what you see.

On the other side, we have a creative God! If He can create a new heart in us, He can do anything we need Him to do for us. God can create anything we need.

Love, Carolyn