“Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.” – Luke 22:3

Happy Easter everyone! Aren’t you so glad we serve The Risen Savior? Our God is not dead bones in the ground somewhere, but very much alive and well and still performing millions of miracles everyday. We should not just celebrate His resurrection because that is what holiday the calendar says it is, but celebrate it all year long because His resurrection is the basis for our entire belief! Without it, we would still be lost.

But I wanted to share this scripture and thought the Lord has ministered to me recently, and it comes from the Easter story. Now I have heard the “Easter Story” countless times over the course of my life, but it was not until Dave was reading it to Ezra and I recently (it blesses me so that Dave reads the bible to Ezra before he is even born, it is so precious!) that this caught my attention.

Over the past few years, The Lord has been ministering to me that we as Christians should not be surprised when non-Christian people act in a non-Christian manner. We get bent out of shape when people go on drug binges, and kill people, and kill children, and live alternate life styles, and lash out at christians. But the fact is, they honestly don’t know what they are doing (Jesus prayed for these people, which at one point included me and you, from the cross as he was dying). So God said don’t be surprised at their behavior, but love them trough it, and they will see my goodness through you.

But over the course of the last year and half or so, we have seen many christian families, lives, and ministries ripped apart by Satan and his spiritual war fare attacks. On each account,  I have heard people  (my self included) say “I just can’t believe that! They would never do that!” We are so shocked when we hear of people who claim to be Christians acting in a non-Christian manner. But what God has been showing me is that just like the non-christians,  we should not be surprised at Christians who fall under Satan’s power, that are not practicing a spiritual walk with Him.

Now there is a VERY fine line here. It is not our job to judge our brethren. But scripture does state that we can be fruit inspectors. God’s word has given us instructions of how to work together if we see a fellow Christian not doing the right thing. That’s  right, holding each other accountable! But we don’t follow those directions,  and when we do follow those directions our fellow christians get tore up from the floor up because they think your trying to be the boss of them.  If you follow the instruction like the bible says (you better read and know it well because Satan will be there to battle you on this), we should be doing this out of love and concern for the spiritual well being of our brothers and sisters and not to boss them, humiliate them, or beat them down. The practice of accountability is about restoration, healing, and uplifting to help someone who is struggling get back to walking with God and not straying off their path, which is all for the betterment of God’s kingdom.

The fact of the matter is, even if someone is a christian, we are still subject to fall victim to Satan’s snares.  When this happens we find ourselves so shocked! But look at our scripture, it says Satan entered into Judas. Have you ever heard that old saying “the devil made me do it” (yes I sure have papaw!☺)? We have blown that off as a little joke of when we do something mean to someone, we say oh sorry the devil made me do it. However according to scripture,  this is a legitimate sin sick diagnosis of Judas, and many Christians today.

All my years, I have never caught the fact that Satan caused this, and made Judas betray Jesus. I have heard it was just the fulfillment of prophecy, it was Judas’ destiny to betray Jesus, but really and truly, it was all Satan! Did prophecy get fulfilled, yes. Unfortunately someone had to fall victim to Satan here for the sake of prophecy to be fulfilled, and in this circumstance it was Judas.

Now just briefly (becuase this is a whole other in depth study for another day) I am going to say, I believe Judas was a Christian. Many believe he was not; that he walked with Jesus but never truly became a believer. The reason I believe he was is because in Matthews account of the gospel, chapter 27, we find Judas comes back to his sense, he is remorseful for what he is done, and hangs himself when he realizes he cannot undo what has been done.

So many times this happens to us! Satan uses Christians to cause his destruction becuase we are not walking with God as closely as we should, and once he has created mass upheaval in our lives, families and churches, and we return to our normal spiritual sense, we cannot believe what we have done.  Lord I did this? I created this mess? We can’t believe someone would do something so sinful, when in reality that could be us. None of us are immune to Satan’s lies and tricks. It is so vitally important that we protect our selves against his wickedness. Perhaps would prophecy have been fulfilled differently had Judas had a different walk with Jesus, I don’t know. Might it have been different if someone would have held Judas accountable and said hey man I see your struggling can I help you pray about this? I don’t know, and none of us will. But what we do know for sure is we all need to start walking closer to God, helping each walk closer to God, so that we can all better His kingdom.

So the next time you see someone struggling spiritually, don’t be shocked, but pray for them, reach out and help them. You never know! Someone right in front of you could be the next Judas, and it’s your love, prayer, and support that keeps them from a terrible spiritual fate.

Dear God,

Thank you so much for what Easter means to us! We thank you for Judas, and his example to us. What a terrible spiritual road he walked God, but you used his walk to guide so many. Lord help us to not walk in the path where Satan can easily take our hand and lead us astray.  Help us to be strong and vigilant for your cause. Lord help us to not be surprised at people’s actions, Christian or non-christian, but help us to be patient and love them so that they may see your love. Help us God as we struggle, becuase the struggle is so real! And through all things we will praise your great and powerful name. Amen.