Hammer on Anvil '

This past week something happened to a friend of mine at work, and I need to vent about it.

My friend (I'll call him Bill) works in a Christian environment, though it is not unusual for decidedly unchristian things to happen there. Recently a pastor from out of state took it upon himself to come to Bill's workplace accompanied by more than 20 of his congregants. He said God told him to come so he and his group could pray over the workplace and all the employees.

When this group came to Bill's area, they surrounded the employees and began "praying" loudly. Then some of them surrounded a young Christian man -- only 18 years old -- and for God-only-knows-what-reason, they attempted to cast a demon out of him. When their script was unsuccessful, they wondered what was wrong, and decided to try it again. The poor kid was subjected to this abuse for an hour, and didn't know how to handle it.

One of the men then came to pray for Bill. Though he knew nothing about Bill, he had the audacity to assume he was a lost soul, and began praying for his salvation. Perhaps the tattoos that adorn Bill's arms, or the fact that he's a janitor (and doesn't work with the "suits" in a higher-up position) caused him to draw this totally inaccurate conclusion.

This kind of behavior by so-called Christians is unconscionable. The 18-year-old's parents were incensed when they found out what happened, and rightly so. They work at the same Christian place as their son, and couldn't believe he was subjected to such humiliating tactics -- all while he was on the clock.

Jesus never resorted to tactics that are tantamount to vultures circling around a carcass. When He encountered evil spirits, He recognized them immediately and dismissed them with usually no more than a few words. He didn't resort to histrionics. He knew where His authority came from, and exercised it as His Father directed Him.

If we profess to follow Jesus, we need to look like Jesus. But we must guard against trying to imitate His behavior in our own flesh. If we hope to live and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, we need to drink deep from the well of communion with God. We must heed Jesus' instructions in John 15:5: "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."