FRIDAY, APRIL 3
Scripture: Matthew 21:33-38

Kat-ekh-o is a word that is very, very important in the foundational understanding of God’s purpose for us in the earth. One of our purposes is to kat-ekh-o, or restrain evil. If the enemy, through tradition, can cause us to believe that we are supposed to only “turn-the-other-cheek” and “pray-for-the-enemy” every time the thief shows up, then he has stopped us from restraining evil. In that place it is difficult to understand that our purpose, is to restrain evil with prayer. We see that in much of the church, worldwide. Many people believe there is no judgment – Jesus took all judgment on Himself. We have all read the passages where satan took Jesus to ‘church’ and preached Him a message. He took Him right to the pinnacle of the temple and quoted Scripture, but he took Scripture out of context and lied. It looks like satan has done the same thing in most of today’s churches with Matthew 5:38,39. He has tried to convince us to enable evil by never raising opposition to it. Yet 2 Thessalonians says that as long as the Holy Spirit is here operating in the church, His job, through His saints, is to restrain evil. We have denied the Holy Spirit a great deal of important action. Satan took us to ‘church’ and preached us a message – and many have believed the lies. Men and women who stand in the pulpit should not bear all the blame. It is the war we all fight with a religious spirit and tradition. Satan has always been a thief and one thing he tries to steal is a true understanding of Who God is and how He wants us to function and operate in the earth. We are in a war and we have an enemy. He first comes to steal, then kill, then destroy. Matthew 21:38 says, “But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize/kat-ekh-o his inheritance.’” Restraining evil is our inheritance and the enemy can only seize it if we let him!