Anyone who serves the Lord is going to be the target of Satan's attacks. The more useful we are to God, the more we will be attacked by the enemy. We won't be able to avoid that. Satan will attack us through slander, false accusations and fabricated stories. And he will attack our wives and our children too.
Just think of the evil things that people said about Jesus in His lifetime, and that they say about Him even today. They called Him a glutton and a drunkard (Luke 7:34), a madman (Mark 3:21), demon-possessed (John 8:48) and the ruler of demons (Matthew 12:24) and many such wicked names. They said he was a heretic preaching doctrines contrary to what the Bible and Moses taught (John 9:29). That's how they drove people away from listening to the Lord. But He never bothered to reply to such people. He never answered a single personal accusation. We shouldn't either. Jesus answered only doctrinalquestions. Today, people say even immoral things about our Lord. But God does not come down in judgment on them.
They called Paul a deceiver and a false prophet who belonged to a sect that was evil spoken of, everywhere (Acts 24:14;28:22). Thus they kept people away from listening to Paul too.
It has been the same story throughout church history with every great man of God - with John Wesley, Charles Finney, William Booth, Watchman Nee and with every other true prophet of God.
Are we willing to pay such a price in order to become like Jesus? Or do we still seek the honour of men?
God breaks us by allowing us to be misunderstood, misjudged, falsely accused and publicly humiliated. In all such circumstances, we must refuse to see the men who are harassing us. They may be our brothers or our enemies. It doesn't matter. Behind the hand of every Judas Iscariot, is our heavenly Father giving us a cup to drink. If we see the Father's hand in such situations, we'll drink the cup joyfully, however bitter and painful it may be. But if we see only Judas, then we'll take out our sword (as Peter did) and cut off people's ears (or their reputations) or whatever.
When we are attacked or falsely accused, God wants us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. It's easy to do that once we see that it is God's hand there, and not man's.
During the past years, I've heard "believers" say all sorts of evil things about me and my teachings. They have also made false accusations against me and my family members and written articles and books against me. But the Lord has always told me never to reply to them. So I've kept quiet. As a result the Lord has done a great work of sanctification both in me and in my family-members! God makes evil to work for our good.
In the Lord's own time I know He will clear away the clouds and make the sun to shine. But He is the One Who determines that time, not I (as we read in
Acts 1:7 ). Until then, my task is to humble myself under His mighty hand. It is not my task to justify myself before anyone. Once I start doing that, I won't have time to do anything else.
As Paul said about Alexander the coppersmith, the Lord Himself will repay our enemies one day according to their deeds (2 Timothy 4:14). So we can safely leave such matters of vengeance in His hands
(Romans 12:19).
It is best to leave all matters with God. He knows what He is doing and He's got everything under His control. He's chiselling away at the rock to sculpture the likeness of Jesus in us. Some parts of the rock are very hard and He has to use false accusations and persecution to chisel out those parts. If we submit to His chiselling, we'll come forth in the end as Christlike men with spiritual authority.
When Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus could call him, "Friend", because He saw His Father's hand clearly. If we see the sovereignty of God in all our circumstances, it'll be easy to humble ourselves. And it'll be easy for God to exalt us at the proper time. God knows the right time to lift a pressure from our shoulders and to give us His authority. So let's wait for Him. No-one who waits for Him will ever be disappointed or put to shame (Isaiah 49:23).
