You have established a new relationship with the powers of darkness. Whatever you were before you were a Christian… you are now a sworn foe of the legions of hell. Have no delusions about their reality or their hostility, but do not fear them. The God inside you terrifies them. They cannot hurt you, let alone kill you, but they can still seduce, and they will try. They will also oppose you as you obey Christ. … you are serious about Christ being your Lord and God, you can expect opposition.
~John White
I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
~ The Least of The Apostles (Paul) in 2Corinthians 12:1-8
It is finished. Jesus kicked death’s teeth into the dirt on the day that He just got up and walked out of the grave. Glory to God. It is done. Zero doubt!
And then some little thing gets in under our helmet, and we start to think about it… We begin to wonder if maybe we are missing G_d’s will on something. A friend says that they heard the Holy Spirit tell them something that is very different from what you have heard… or they lob some sort of “concern grenade” into our lives and walk away, unwilling to discuss the issue. Oh, how quickly our fleshly brains will be diverted by a little slanting attack and unwittingly we drop the shield of faith, and open a breach in our own wall.
WARNING!
But, we get distracted and maybe start to wonder if we are really sure about… For one second, we even wonder if we are in the will of G_d, or if He will reject us because our choices don’t match up perfectly with our (or other’s) perception of what we believe the will of G_d to be… And suddenly, in the back of our minds comes creeping some kind of fear. It wants to grab our stomach and fill it with acid. It makes us want to backtrack on a decision already made…
Do not join the mutiny. Hold on beloved. Just wait.
Thankfully, the evil one; that accuser of the brethren is only and always a thief and a liar. Oh, he will dress up the attacks to look like important theological questions about grace, or the will of G_d, or forgiveness – but underneath the hood there is always the tell-tale question: “Yeah, but… did G_d really say?” and he will drop some seed of doubt or fear (is there really any difference between the two?) to get us to take our eyes of the One who gives us the strength to overcome these attacks.
But, he will often overplay his hand. Pride being the root stock of this creature, he probably cannot help it. Something is always wrong, it does not resonate with the truth that has been infused into us at rebirth.
Then The Spirit of The One who has started (and will complete) the work He alone has begun in us starts pouring His truth and power and peace out onto us. He does it through His Word, through prayer, through the brethren, through direct and general revelation. And He tells us: Fear not beloved. Fear is not from Me. My Love and Work and Presence cast out fear. Take on My Power, and tell that voice to go away.
And we do. And it does.
But, as G_d allows it, the voice will be back to buffet us. When we cross the Jordan, we will be in battle almost constantly. And be most surely assured, the victory of the promised land includes spiritual hyper-violence and long, protracted battle action.
As (by His grace) this writer has yielded his life fully to Him, he can only remember about 45 seconds of “total cessation” of spiritual hostilities. It was a moment, a gift, on a prayer walk in the mountains. Total quiet and calm for less than a minute in over 38 and a half years of life in Christ. Oh yeah, there have been wonderful hours and days and weeks of profound peace, power, clarity and fruit. But these times have always been in a fully battle-dressed, battle-ready, battle-engaged position in the spiritual world. Even in the peace, i could hear the fiery darts of the evil one clanging off the fortress in which He has me dwell.
So, battle on friends.
And let’s not forget the rest of the passage, where G_d says to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
It is finished. Jesus kicked death’s teeth into the dirt on the day that He just got up and walked out of the grave. Glory to God. It is done. Zero doubt!
And then some little thing gets in under our helmet, and we start to think about it… We begin to wonder if maybe we are missing G_d’s will on something. A friend says that they heard the Holy Spirit tell them something that is very different from what you have heard… or they lob some sort of “concern grenade” into our lives and walk away, unwilling to discuss the issue. Oh, how quickly our fleshly brains will be diverted by a little slanting attack and unwittingly we drop the shield of faith, and open a breach in our own wall.
WARNING!
But, we get distracted and maybe start to wonder if we are really sure about… For one second, we even wonder if we are in the will of G_d, or if He will reject us because our choices don’t match up perfectly with our (or other’s) perception of what we believe the will of G_d to be… And suddenly, in the back of our minds comes creeping some kind of fear. It wants to grab our stomach and fill it with acid. It makes us want to backtrack on a decision already made…
Do not join the mutiny. Hold on beloved. Just wait.
Thankfully, the evil one; that accuser of the brethren is only and always a thief and a liar. Oh, he will dress up the attacks to look like important theological questions about grace, or the will of G_d, or forgiveness – but underneath the hood there is always the tell-tale question: “Yeah, but… did G_d really say?” and he will drop some seed of doubt or fear (is there really any difference between the two?) to get us to take our eyes of the One who gives us the strength to overcome these attacks.
But, he will often overplay his hand. Pride being the root stock of this creature, he probably cannot help it. Something is always wrong, it does not resonate with the truth that has been infused into us at rebirth.
Then The Spirit of The One who has started (and will complete) the work He alone has begun in us starts pouring His truth and power and peace out onto us. He does it through His Word, through prayer, through the brethren, through direct and general revelation. And He tells us: Fear not beloved. Fear is not from Me. My Love and Work and Presence cast out fear. Take on My Power, and tell that voice to go away.
And we do. And it does.
But, as G_d allows it, the voice will be back to buffet us. When we cross the Jordan, we will be in battle almost constantly. And be most surely assured, the victory of the promised land includes spiritual hyper-violence and long, protracted battle action.
As (by His grace) this writer has yielded his life fully to Him, he can only remember about 45 seconds of “total cessation” of spiritual hostilities. It was a moment, a gift, on a prayer walk in the mountains. Total quiet and calm for less than a minute in over 38 and a half years of life in Christ. Oh yeah, there have been wonderful hours and days and weeks of profound peace, power, clarity and fruit. But these times have always been in a fully battle-dressed, battle-ready, battle-engaged position in the spiritual world. Even in the peace, i could hear the fiery darts of the evil one clanging off the fortress in which He has me dwell.
So, battle on friends.
And let’s not forget the rest of the passage, where G_d says to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.
~ C. S. Lewis
