Our adversary is a master strategist, forever fogging up our minds with smokescreens.
~Charles R. Swindoll (1934- )
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
~ Hebrews 12:1-3
Bluntly beloved, the devil is torqued over the fact that believers enjoy the righteousness, joy and peace imparted to us by G_d, in the kingdom.
i believe the accuser knows that his future is fully in accordance with the Word of G_d. The devil’s end will be an end more ignoble than the pouring out of the contents of a chamber pot. G_d has won. G_d does win. G_d will win.
But, in the mean time, he will work his mischief as allowed. John Milton was right when he said that this being was fierce in heaven, but now fiercer in his despair.
So, as we start to move in a direction that G_d would have us move, we will notice a huge ramping of the things in our life that tend to distract us from the goal set before us. Circumstances, smells, condemnations, curves, images, tastes, desires, and perceived needs are paraded across the parade ground of our lives. We can easily begin to feel disoriented. Where were we going…?
Count it true that we are in a spiritual battle. However, beloved, count it even more true that the end of this war is already decided. We are in a vicious retreating action on the part of a defeated enemy. And the church is, in Christ, an unstoppable force of the supernatural. Dangerous is this action for sure, but victory is even more assured. The Word of G_d states this truth as an absolute.
We may indeed feel certain amounts of disorientation as walk into the Light. But this dizziness only occurs when we take our eyes off the goal of our upward call in Christ, and look to the myriad false choices available to us along the way.
It can seem hard to obey and look to Him, but even this is an illusion. G_d will give us everything we need to keep going in the right direction.
When we choose deliberately to obey him, then He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us with all of His almighty power
~ Oswald Chambers
See, we – those who have fully trusted Christ for their salvation – are not just saved, we are IN Christ. We are protected from any spiritual harm by simply staying in His presence, and keeping our eyes on Jesus’ face.
Isn’t it more complicated than that?
No.
