Spiritual Overkill and Overseer

                                               

 

“Was the Cross that held Jesus, who died for Mankind's sin, considered overkill for all the evil sins people commit?”   

Most of the people in the world, do not need God, to see for themselves all the evil in the world. 

Some people are confused about God, and why He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die.  They sometimes, even innocently, justify their lives without thinking that they are sinners, by claiming that God is not just.   

 

First, we have ALL sinned and fallen short of God’s Glory.  Romans 3:23. 

Just because a person is not evil in their own eyes, does not void their need for forgiveness from the Cross.  90% of mankind are not killers, rapists, thieves, or malicious sinners. 

God does not categorize sins by severity.  We have all sinned. 

All means, all people. 

People can say, “I do not need God because I am not that bad.” 

Or “I am a good person, and I try to help others and do good things.” 

“For by grace you have been saved, (by Jesus dying) through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2: 8-9. 

Some would argue, “I certainly don’t see how an innocent person, especially a child, dying a horrible death, somehow makes my wrongs right in the sight of God.”   

 

How do I make sense of this seemingly twisted justice system by God, and understand why I need Jesus to forgive me?” 

People do not feel comfortable, to put it mildly, with hell or with the Cross of Christ.  I would state this problem like this: Where God is small and man is big, hell will be abhorrent, indeed, absurd, and the Cross will be foolishness. 

The most telling thing about this question posed is that the conception of evil can never be big enough to make sense of a place called hell.  Or the Cross. 

 

The question defines evil only in relation to what harms a man, not what demeans God. 

 

Most would say, “I do not see myself as an evil person.” 

Are they wicked and utterly depraved?  No.  They are still in need of forgiveness by a loving God who sent His Son to die for their sins. 

Not their evil.  That belongs to Lucifer.  The Devil is the fallen one. 

 

I am getting to the spiritual overkill issue soon. 

 

Suppose there is no God, and this question of evil versus good, and sin, is just not real. 

Adolf Hitler was then, according to the notion that there is no God; super successful in His killing the Jews.  Correct?  (Not real success as the world defines a life worth living).

I am not saying people lean that far to evil. But what if, since there is no God, we (like Adolf) had the power and influence to kill all the people of Africa?  We have already killed millions of Jews.  We kill all who live in China too.  India.  South America, and so on. 

So, we have succeeded in killing around seven billion people. 

 

Would I then deserve eternal punishment in Hell? 

My answer to this issue is no.  For two reasons. 

If there is no God in this scenario, then we are just simply a complex, material, and chemical animal.  Not human with soul and spirit.  There is no right from wrong in this explanation.     

Second, and most importantly, in this point is this: I would not deserve an infinitely long punishment, because seven billion murders are still finite.  A limited number of all these limited crimes does not deserve any punishment. 

When God is left out, there is no way to have justice in an infinite crime deserving of an endless punishment like hell or the Cross. They would simply be unjust. 

So, this overkill analogy is just that. 

 

Overkill in justifying our sin, and rebellion against God who did create the Heavens and the earth.  First, we must believe this, or the rest is nil to our hearts.  People inherently know right from wrong in their conscience and ignore the feeling they have when they rebel. 

Sin is rebellion.  Rebellion against the God who created us.   

Today’s world has watered down sin.  Hollywood movies and shows depict husbands cheating on their wives as if their behavior were normal.  Violence in the movies is extreme.  Fist fighting is not real.  No man on this earth can get hit in the jaw with the sound effects used in movies, over, and over, and over again. 

 

This is not real life.  I ought to know.  Once in the jaw and you are finished.  Prison life for me proved that fact.  Not fiction from a Western movie. 

Most good people who are not Christ followers, think they are safe from an eternal damnation because they are good.  Jesus Christ died for all mankind, making Himself of no reputation.  He died, so everyone could live. 

Yet, our ignorance of His Word becomes our overkill attitude and belief system.  

 We do not believe we are wrong at all in our understanding.  Wise in our own eyes.  Isaiah 5:20-21 declares, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”   

This passage in Isaiah goes on to say that “Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel,” this alone causes the anger of the Lord to be aroused against His people.” 

Aroused is not judgment yet.  Israel found out the hard way. 

It is God and His awareness of everything we do and speak.  He sees all.  He knows all.   

Is our complacency and ignorance of God and His Word become common in our hearts?  Does it seem easier to ignore any punishment now and pretend there are no consequences for our actions?

We reap what we sow.  This eternal law from the Most High applies to everyone, not just Christians. 

This is why, “for those who are without Christ as Savior, feel that the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness.  But to us who are saved, it is the Power of God.”  1st Corinthians 1:18. 

“Well, if there was and is a God, why do good people die or get abused?” 

Sin, and the decay of this world and its people is obvious. 

 

Since the Garden of Eden to today, sin has caused the original order of God to become disorder, daily.  From good to evil, and from order to disorder.  It is called spiritual decay.  Without Christ in mankind's heart, they will all surely die.   

“Evil takes over when good men do nothing.” 

(A misunderstood quote associated with no proof of who actually said it). 

The silence of good men is not the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil.  The advancing evil, whether in command or the rank-and-file, must be strong and determined; and the lukewarm must be either cowed (causes someone to be intimidated) into submission, or willing to go along because the evil seems to prosper.   

(Remember, we battle not with flesh and blood).

 

Overkill: excessive use, treatment, or action; too much of something.  The amount by which destruction or the capacity for destruction exceeds what is necessary to win or finish. 

We know evil comes from Satan, and people are used in evil tasks.  This is spiritual overkill to blame everything on demons, or devils, or people, without understanding it is an absolute spiritual war.  War is violent and deadly with many casualties. 

This war we are in is spiritual.  And we must fight with spiritual weapons.  Prayer and intercession do work.  Prayer is a sweet-smelling aroma in the nostrils of God.  Our conduct and behavior that pleases the Lord gives Him pleasure like the sweet smell of Springtime. 

 

The best example I know of overkill in the demonic sense, or with pre-conceived outcomes, is myself.  I knew my behavior was leading to destruction.  I did not care.  I wanted to be the way I was.  I did not need any help in becoming an addict. 

The year 1974 was the beginning of the end for me.  Drug addiction changes a person mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  I was physically sick all the time as well.  Drug use and abuse opens the door to demonic oppression and demonic possession. 

My $200.00 a day Meth habit, brought with it, demonic possession. 

At least in my case. 

I can only speak to what I did, and how Jesus Christ set me free. 

Once I found out my mother had liver cancer and was going to die, when I was 14 years old, I wanted an escape from this current and future pain. 

Not her pain.  My pain from watching my mom slowly die. 

The results of my seven-year demonic drug use landed me in prison for two attempted murders. 

Fast forward.  I receive Jesus as my Savior, and Lord while in prison in 1977. Jesus set me free from the demonic strongholds on the day of my Salvation in prison.  (No vomiting up demons with a tail and pitchfork).  

No screaming out the demons either.  My release from the demons was a combination of the Holy Spirit purging my soul and releasing me from the demons in my entire being. 

 

What did I feel?  What was it like? 

Example: I had a festering carbuncle near my knee when I was 12 years old.  The doctor deadened the area around it and then lanced it open.  What started out as a small, puss-filled bump, was much more than that.  When the doctor removed it, there was a one-inch root attached to the bump.  It had seeds on the root.  The dead flesh, coupled with the blood and puss, gushed out during the removal. 

As gross as this sounds, this is how I felt spiritually and physically, when the demons left me.  I felt no pain or any physical sensations because the Holy Spirit is love immaculate.  Once the spiritual tentacles left me, pulled up from the root of evil, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and true PEACE.   This overwhelmed my soul and spirit.  

No physical blood, or puss, or seeds.  Zero evil remained.  My spirit was free and began to function with love instead of hatred. 

I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, (with one of the pieces of evidence) of this Acts Chapter Two experience.  A new language, foreign to me, bubbled out of my spirit.  This new Heavenly language became my new prayer life.  Acts 2:4 reference: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”   

Moments after my conversion to Christ, I was experiencing God’s Power (the second piece of evidence) in my 21 years old life.  I was young, but knew I was changing with the Lord Jesus being the ONE who does the changing. 

I did not see the inmates around me any longer as criminals.  I saw potential believers in Jesus like me. 

God knew I needed His power to overcome my past and present prison circumstances.  He eventually healed my broken heart from my mom dying. 

And, three years later after she was gone, my Daddy was murdered. 

The drug addictions and my broken heart were what led me to prison to begin with. 

 

Now, the good news. 

Some 18 years ago, around 2007, I took a trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  I had been preaching in prisons since 1992, but this trip was about to prove to me this issue of Spiritual Overkill. 

But in a beautiful, loving way that only Jesus Christ could have orchestrated. 

We arrive in San Jose, Costa Rica for the first leg of a 9-day sprint all over Central Latin America. 

The great anointed “Overkill” did not happen in Costa Rica, but Nicaragua. 

Once we landed in Managua, the capital of this once devastated city, the preaching began. 

 

Backstory. 

A horrible 6.2 magnitude earthquake in 1972 destroyed this Capital City.  Besides killing up to 10,000 people and displacing 250,000 more, the earthquake flattened a five-square-mile radius of the city from downtown outwards.  All skyscrapers gone in an instant.  Everywhere was flattened. 

Extremely filthy, shantytowns encompassed the central district, where refugees lived in conditions of grinding poverty. 

We are preaching to poor people.  Beyond poor.  Though it had been 35 years since the earthquake, people still live in desperate, devastated conditions in 2007. 

On the last night of our revival meeting near downtown Managua, I was asked by my mentor to preach the last event for the week. 

He anointed me with oil prior to preaching.  We have it on film.   He grabbed my face with anointing oil dripping off his hands (symbolic of the Holy Spirit,) I flew backwards with my feet off the ground around 9 feet.  My body hit a row of empty metal chairs and knocked them over. 

On film, it captured this supernatural event. I was on the dirt ground for about 5 minutes.  All during this time, I was in the Spirit of God.  Not a vision.  I was just in His Presence. 

When I was helped up by fellow ministers, my grey slacks were riddled with oil, dirt, and new wrinkles.  No humility needed now.  I was about to preach to over 500 people in a grass field.  I could have cared less how I looked.  I was more concerned about the power of God I just felt and expected it to continue as I approached the stage to preach. 

Boy, did it continue.

With all these people, men, women, and children staring on, I began my message. Most were sitting on the ground, because there were not enough chairs there to accommodate the crowd. 

I began, with my interpreter, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto Salvation, to them that believe, first the Jew and then the Greek.”  Romans 1:16. 

No applause.  No movement. No Amen’s. 

This was unusual, because there were believers in Jesus, scattered in the crowd too.  I was not looking for any applause or movement or Amen’s.  This culture behaves differently than in America. 

This is simply painting the picture of what was about to happen. 

I asked the crowd after my opening scripture reference, “What do you believe in?  Or better yet, who do you believe in?” 

I preached about the one lost sheep being rescued and brought back.  The 99 left behind, for the ONE.   Matthew 18:12-13. 

I did the invitation, and several hundred, came up to receive Jesus as their Savior. 

What happened next was supernatural, and a sign and wonder to all who saw what God was doing in the field. 

Our team consisted of me, my interpreter, my fellow evangelist who anointed me with oil earlier, and four more ministers. 

After the Salvation prayer, we prayed for the sick and afflicted. 

With an interpreter with each of us, we prayed for needs in the crowd. 

We were unable to ask for the individual needs for long, because the Power of God fell upon the entire field. 

We tried to anoint with oil, the foreheads of those wanting prayer.  This worked for a minute or so, but God had other ideas and plans for this night. 

People began falling backwards (without catchers, or someone to break their fall), in slow motion. 

Literally, they fell backwards with no person behind them, one by one. 

Taking up to ten seconds from a standing position, to finally laying softly into the grass.  The power of God was all over these men, women, and even children.  I remember, in the beginning, that several children were playing near the altar and pretending to fall on their own.  The Lord touched these children while they pretended.  They all received His Power. 

They lay still, many worshipping out loud with their mouths.  Some singing.  Others were speaking in another language.  Not the cultural language of Nicaragua.  Tongues of fire from the Holy Ghost! 

Once all the folks were prayed for, I looked out over this field, and it looked like cord wood scattered, with bodies lying on top of one another.   The altar area, which was over seventy feet deep, and 100 feet wide; consisted of God’s people laying down under His Power.  The air was filled with singing, tongues, and shouts.  Not loud shouts, mind you.  Shouts of joy and hope filling the atmosphere.  It was a sweet-smelling aroma to God, and to all who were witnessing this “wonder.”  It was harmonious.  This went on for over 45 minutes. 

Many were healed, delivered, and set free according to the Pastors who knew them. 

 

This miracle night was just getting started.  Especially for me, personally.   

I was then asked, to go with another Pastor to a nearby home and pray for a terminally ill woman.  A few of the team went with me.  Keep in mind, this area was very poor and somewhat dangerous to Americans. 

With our interpreter and a couple, a husband and wife with me, we entered this makeshift house. 

It was around 100 square feet in totality.  The husband of the terminally ill wife was sitting in a wooden chair. 

Understand what we are seeing. 

A makeshift kitchen area with a woodburning stone stove.  One light bulb.  Cinder block walls and sheet metal roofing.  Dirt floors.  That’s it.  No running water or bathroom. 

I entered the bedroom, a tiny, five- feet -by- eight-foot area.  One small bed with the wife in stage four liver cancer. 

“Cancer?” 

My memory is clicking in for a moment as the Pastor explained to me prior to arriving, about the woman’s condition.  My Mom died of the very illness this woman is suffering with. 

I looked down at her, and I was shocked, to say the least. 

This woman is a spitting image of Mom.  I mean, like her twin.  Black hair turning white.  70 pounds, withering away with liver cancer.  Her facial features were not like my mom’s.  They were exactly like my mother, as if I am looking down at her back in 1971, when she was dying in front of my 15-year-old eyes. 

Her last days on earth back then were now, right in front of me.  Almost like a repeat of what I went through as a boy.   

This evening, as we began to pray for her, taught me a valuable piece of understanding. 

I was about to witness a miracle. 

 

She was in agony, and pain, without saying anything to us.  This was fine, as we prayed James 5:14-16 over her. 

“Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”   

We gently, and quietly left this home, with hopes that the Lord Jesus touched her, and her weeping husband. 

I was elated for this family.  We were all in hopes they received what we prayed.  On the other hand, this twin of my mother, so to speak, who was suffering this evening, was daunting, regarding my memories of watching my mother suffer back in 1970-1971. 

I was in a bitter-sweet moment in my heart. 

“Oh Lord, touch her and heal her body, in Jesus Name, Amen.” 

My final prayer in my heart for her, as I went to sleep in a motel.  It did not have dirt floors like the one, tiny shack I had just left.  

The next morning, as we were about to leave for the airport, the Pastor arrived to see us off.  He ran up to me, with an interpreter, and proclaimed this: “The woman you prayed for?  She woke up the next morning and got out of bed for the first time in weeks. 

She had been eating only one 'thimbles' worth of food a day,” he said, “until that next morning.  She got up, went into the kitchen, and cooked herself a full breakfast.  Afterwards, she went to the local government-run doctor and had blood tests and x-rays done.  The liver cancer has disappeared, and she is no longer terminal!  To God be all the Glory!”

He spoke this with tears streaming down his face. 

I was shocked and yet expectant of this miracle.  Why?  Because of the Power of God on display that night in the revival.  It spread outward, and into the home of a sick, dying woman. 

This memory of God moving on behalf of a once dying woman, will stay with me forever. 

 

It was not overkill, by any means. 

It was really OVER-LIFE really. 

What seems like spiritual overkill, or the using of “more force than needed” is an understatement. 

God, in my heart, used a lot more force of His Power, and His Love that revival week. 

He does what He is. 

He is Healing, not just the Healer. 

He is Deliverance, not just the Deliverer. 

He is OVER and above anything we could ask or think. 

ASK, seek and knock. 

He is there for you too.  He is our Spiritual OVER-seer of our lives. 

 Copyright © 2025 by Joe Wilkins