Dealing with the Power of Evil--by Linden Malki

The Apostle Paul says a scary thing in his discussion of sin and death in Romans 7: that even when we know God and His Law we are still subject to the possibility of sin.  In fact, he goes on to say that the Law itself brings knowledge of sin, in that we become aware of it as something that we are responsible for but will still fail in our own efforts.
This is when we find ourselves in a situation where we are aware of the laws that we still find ourselves on the wrong side of, but we can recognize that we do have His Spirit available to make us aware of both the nature of sin and that we have the power available to overcome it. Even when we don't live up to the Law, we do have the recognition of where we have messed up, and the knowledge that we are forgiven.

We are supposed to recognize evil when we see it, and to recognize that we are not called to overcome it on our own. Step one is recognition: what we don't recognize we can't deal with. We can get ourselves in trouble because we are not even aware that the problem exists, and it's a battle that we lose because we did nothing.  The next step is awareness that the Law gives us a tool to recognize it. If we deal with it with our own best efforts, we may make some progress in dealing with it. and it may even lead to pride in our efforts. We are still dealing with it on our own strength. There is another step: recognizing the evil power that may be involved, and this means it  needs spiritual power.If we don't have a relationship with a source of spiritual power, we are helpless.  Evil wants us to think that we are helpless. If we have the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, we have a source of power to call on, but if we don't apply this power, we're still behind the curve. What will answer the question is to stop trying to deal with it on our own, admit that we are powerless on our own, and give it to the Spirit that can handle it.

Sometimes we forget that evil is real; temptation is real, and sometimes the best answer is to not try to handle it on our own; walk away and leave it alone.