Author: Billy Conrad

December 1

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. — Romans 12:21

Scripture reading: 2 Peter 2

You need the Word of God in your hearts so that you might be able to overcome the world. We can so live in this divine communion with Christ that we can sense evil in any part of the world. In this present world, powers of evil are rampant. The plan of God is that we might be so in Him that we will be equal to any occasion.

“Beloved” (1 John 4:1). That is a good word. It means that we are now in a place where God has set His love upon us. He wants us to listen to what He has to say to us because when His beloved are hearing His voice, then they understand what He has for them.

God is dealing with us as sons; He calls us “beloved.” We are in the truth, but we want to know the truth in a way that will keep us free. (See John 8:32.) I want to help the people who have been so troubled with voices and with things that have happened that they have felt they had no control over them. And I want to help those who are bound in many ways and have been trying in every way to
get free.

The fourth chapter of 1 John tells us specifically how to deal with evil powers, with evil voices. It tells us how we may be able to dethrone them and be in a place where we are over them. It shows us how we may live in the world not subject to fear, not subject to bondage, not subject to pain, but in a place where we are defeating evil powers, ruling over them, reigning in the world by this life of Christ. In this way, we will be from above, and we will know it. We will not be subject to the world, but we will reign over the world so that disease, sin, and death will not have dominion.

A keynote that runs through the entire Scriptures is that Jesus has vanquished and overcome all of the powers of the Devil and has destroyed his power, even the power of death. Whether we are going to believe it or not, this is for us. God sends out the challenge, and He says, “If you believe it, it will be so.”

What will hinder us? Our human nature will. God‘s work in us will be hindered when the human will is not wholly surrendered, when there is some mixture, part spirit and part flesh, when there is a division in your own heart.

In a house where there are two children, one may desire to obey his father and mother, and he is loved and is very well treated. The other is loved just the same, but the difficulty is this: the wayward boy who wants his own way does many things to grieve his parents, and he gets the whip. They are both children in the house; one is getting the whip, the other is getting the blessing without the whip.

Any number of God‘s children are getting the whip who know better than they are doing. So I want you to wake up to do what you know ought to be done. Sin is never covered by your appearance, your presence, your prayers, or your tears. Sin can only be removed by repentance. When you repent deeply enough, you will find that the thing goes away forever. Never cover up sin. Sins must be judged. Sins must be brought to the blood of Christ. When you have a perfect confidence between you and God, it is amazing how your prayers rise. You catch fire, you are filled with zeal, your inspiration is tremendous, you find out that the Spirit prays through you, and you live in a place of blessing.

Thought for today: The man who lives in God is afraid of nothing.

November 30

Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. — 1 John 4:1

Scripture reading: Matthew 4:1–11

The voices continued. Ah, those evil voices. How will we know whether they are of God? When God speaks, He speaks with wisdom. When the Devil came to Jesus he said, “If You are the Son of God” (Matthew 4:3). The Devil knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and Jesus knew and answered, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (v. 10).

Was there anything wrong with what was happening with these two young women? The wrong was that the first young woman ought to have judged the spirits. If she had asked, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” the voice would have answered no. No satanic voice in the world and no Spiritualist medium will acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh.

The same power said to the young woman, “Now that I know you will obey me in everything, I will make you the greatest missionary in the world.”

How could the two women have known at that moment that this was a false voice? Why, they could have known according to the Word of God. What does it say? “Many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Who are these false prophets after? Perhaps those with sincerity, earnestness, zeal, and purity. Who knows? These evil powers know. These are the questions they should have kept in their minds: What am I living for? What is the hope of my life? Do I have to be the greatest missionary in the world, or does Jesus need to be glorified in my life to do as He wills with me? The ripe grape is never as pure and perfect as it is just before it decays. The child of God is never as near to God as he is when the Devil can come and say, “You are wonderful!”

It is satanic to feel that God has a special message for you and that you are someone more special than anyone else. Every place that God brings you to in a rising tide of perfection is a place of humility, brokenness of heart, and fullness of surrender, where only God can rule in authority. It is not where you are somebody, but where God is everything and where you will be living for His glory.

It took three difficult months before these two young women were delivered from their delusion. But God did deliver them, and later He opened the door for them to go as missionaries to China. Thank God, the Devil‘s plan was defeated, but it was at a tremendous cost, almost of their lives.

How could they have known that it was a false voice? How can you know? When a voice comes, no matter how it seems to you, you must test it. When it is persistently pressing you to do something and you can hardly conceive how this thing could be possible, you have a position in the power of the Word of God to say to this evil power, “Did Jesus come in the flesh?” (1 John 4:3). And the satanic power will say no. But the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Spirit, always says yes. And so you can get to know the difference. We have to live in the place of knowing the Scriptures and listening to His voice so that we are able to divinely discern whether these things are of God or not.

Did Jesus come in the flesh? Yes, and now the living Christ is within you. Christ came into you the moment you believed. There is a manifestation of it. You may live in such a way that your language, your expressions, your actions, and everything speak of Christ. “They realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). You can live in such a way that the personality of Christ is exactly what Paul said: “Not I—I don‘t live anymore. Christ lives in me.” (See Galatians 2:20.)

The Christ life, the Christ power, the personality of His presence may be in you in such a way that you cannot doubt the Word of God.

Thought for today: The workings of the Spirit are always contrary to the workings of the flesh.

November 29

Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. — 1 John 4:1

Scripture reading: Psalm 115

My wife and I were visiting at the home of these two sisters when they came in from work that day. We saw the distress. We saw the wild condition. If you are wild, that is the Devil. If you go breathlessly to the Bible, looking for confirmation of the voice, that is the Devil. The Word of God brings light. I must use it as the Word of Light. I must see it as the Light of Light. I must have it as the Light.

I must be wise, because if I say I am baptized with the Holy Spirit, if I say I am a child of God, I must act so that people will know that I have been with God. (See Acts 4:13.) If there is anything I would resound through this meeting like a trumpet, it is this: “Do not let your good be spoken of as evil” (Romans 14:16)!

Well, what happened to the young woman? The voice came with such tremendous force that she could not let it go. Try the spirits. God will never do anything like that. He will never send you an unreasonable, unmanageable message.

The moment the girl became obsessed with what the voice said, what did the Devil say next? “You keep this a secret. Don‘t tell anybody. If you confide in anybody, let it be your sister, because she seems to understand you.” So they confided in each other.

Now that is surely as satanic as anything you ever heard in your life, because every true thing, every holy thing, does not need to be kept a secret under any circumstances. Anything that is holy can be told on the housetops; God wants you to be able to tell all.

My wife and I tried to help them. “Oh, God is speaking to me!” the young woman said. And we could not change her. That night she said that the evil power continued speaking, saying to her, “Tell no one but your sister. Go to the station tonight and wait for the train. The train will come in at thirty-two minutes past seven. Buy two tickets for Glasgow. After you have bought your tickets, you will have sixpence left.”

This could be confirmed, and no one had to know but her sister. They went to the station. The train came in exactly at the right time. And there was just sixpence left after they had bought the ticket. Marvelous! Wonderful! This was sure to be right. “See!” she said. “I have just the amount of money left after I have bought the tickets that the voice said I would.” The train came in. The voice had said that a gentleman would be sitting in one of the coaches with all the money she would ever need. Directly opposite this gentleman, a woman with a nurse‘s cap would be sitting. The man would give her all the money, and they were to take it to a certain bank at a certain street corner in Glasgow.

Here was lack of presentation of thought. There are no banks open at half past seven, and, after investigation, it was discovered that there was no such bank in that place. Then what caused the young woman to obey the voice? It got her ear, and I will tell you what the danger is. If I had only five minutes I would say this to you: if you cannot be reasoned with, you are wrong. If you are right and everybody else is wrong, I don‘t care who you are, if you cannot bear examination, if what you hold cannot bear the light of the truth, you are wrong. It will save a lot of you if you will just think.

You may say, “Oh, but I know, I know.” It is a very serious thing when nobody else knows but you. May God deliver us from such a condition. If you think you have some specialty, it is not unique; it can be repeated.

The train came in. They rushed from one end of the train to the other. There were no such people on the train. Then the voice came, “On the next platform, the next train.” And they rushed over. Would you believe, those two young women were kept moving from platform to platform by those voices until half past nine at night?

Thought for today: People get outside of the plan of God when they trust solely in their own judgment.

November 28

Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. — 1 John 4:1

Scripture reading: Isaiah 26:1–15

Now, this young woman was so excited that her sister noticed it and went to her. “What is it?” she asked. “Oh! God is speaking to me,” she said, “saying wonderful things to me.”

She became so excited that her sister asked their supervisor if they could be excused for a while. So the overseer allowed them both to be excused for a time, and they went into a room. The first sister became so excited with these messages, so believing that it was of God, that her white blouse became spotted with blood as she pricked her flesh with the nails of her hand.

That is never of God. What do I read about the wisdom of God? I read that it is full of peace and gentleness; it is willing to submit; it is without partiality; it is full of goodness and truth. (See James 3:17.) And, remember, if you ever know anything about God, it will be peace. If you ever know anything about the world, it will be disorder. The peace of God, which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), comes to the heart after you are saved. We are “justified by faith,” and “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). The peace continues until it makes us full of the “hope of the glory of God” (v. 2).

God showed me a long time ago, and it has not been taken out of my mind, that if I was disturbed in my spirit and was not at rest, I had missed the plan. How can you miss it? In three ways.

First of all, you can miss it because you have taken on someone else‘s burden. All the time you are told to cast your burden on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). Any number of people are overflowing with sorrow because they are taking on someone else‘s burden. That is wrong. You must teach them and teach yourself that you have to cast your burdens on the Lord.

Second, if you do not have peace, you have gotten out of the will of God in some way. You may not have sinned. You can be out of the will of God without sinning. You can be out of the will of God if you are not making progress. If you have not made progress since yesterday morning, you are a backslider. Everybody is a backslider who is not going on with God. You are a backslider if you do not increase in the divine character and likeness of Christ. You have to move from state to state, “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18), by the Spirit of the Lord.

You can lose your peace by missing some divine plan of God, and you can lose your peace because you have gotten your mind on something natural. A natural thing is a carnal thing. The Word of God says that the carnal things have to be destroyed because they are not subject to the law of God and cannot be subject to them (Romans 8:7). Every carnal thing must be destroyed.

So you can miss the plan. Now, what is the plan? “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). Examine yourself to see where you are. If you are not in perfect peace, you are out of the will of God.

Therefore, if these voices take away your peace, you will know they are not the will of God. But if the Spirit speaks, He will bring harmony and joy. The Spirit always brings three things: comfort, exhortation, and edification. He will make you sing “songs in the night” (Job 35:10). You will rise in high places, and you will not be afraid of declaring the works of the Lord. When the Spirit of the Lord is upon you and greatly active, you may “go from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7), praising the Lord.

Thought for today: Nothing makes you so foolish as to turn aside from the Word of God. If you ever want to be a fool, turn away from God‘s Word, and you will find yourself in a fool‘s paradise.

November 27

Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. — 1 John 4:1

Scripture reading: Judges 6:36–7:22

Two sisters were saved in our meetings and were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were very lovely women, full of purity, truth, and righteousness. No one could look at them without admiring them.

Both of them worked in a telegraph office and both desired to be missionaries. They were so zealous to be missionaries that they were laying aside money and doing everything they could in order to be prepared to go to the mission field.

One of them was operating a telegraph machine when she heard a voice in her head, a voice that said something along these lines: “Will you obey me? If you will obey me, I will make you the most wonderful missionary that ever lived.” Oh, beloved, try the voices, try the spirits. Only the Devil promises such a thing, but she did not know this; she did not understand. This was exactly what she wanted; it was her heart‘s desire, do you see? And she was so moved by this. The voice added, “And I will find you all the money you need.” I have never known this kind of “leading” to come true, and you never will as long as you live.

For example, a man came to me and said, “I have in my hands a certain food for invalids that can raise millions of dollars for the missionaries.” I said to him, “I will not have anything to do with it.” These things are not a success. God does not work that way. If God wanted you to have gold, He could make it rain on your houses while you were away. He has all the gold, and the cattle on a thou
sand hills are His (Psalm 50:10).

When anybody preaches for the kingdom‘s sake, God will provide. Seek only God, and the rain will fall. The enduement of power will be made manifest in your mortal bodies if you are really in the Spirit.

Thought for today: Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit not only for your sake but also for the sake of others.