In the realm of God on this Earth, within the
sanctuary of the true spiritual life, a place serene with whispers of the
Divine, there is safety—far away does the enemy of God dwell from that place.
But this place of the heart—a geography of the soul—a locale of the mind—is
safe, in this world, only for a select season.
This season is driven by intention; by
commitment we have this power of God to sweep away potential for attack from
the devil.
The place where Satan cannot touch us is in
the very lap of God, and it’s not difficult to arrive there. But it is
difficult for us to stay—we have spiritual attention-deficit disorder. Our
minds wander and our hearts get lax. It’s just the way it is.
We last a few weeks in the strength of God by
our genuine yet now fortified and thoroughly beautiful weakness... or perhaps
it is days or hours.
At this place we know Power, and it’s beyond
ourselves.
What we need do is we remain in
him, who is our
Saviour, our Lord, our King—the Majesty of Creation; him who is the Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the End.
Remaining in Him
“Abide in me as I abide in you.”
— John 15:4a (NRSV)
Although we do have to face the thought that
an ambush of the enemy is a present and real danger always, we do have the path
of protection. And this is no ordinary protection.
Abiding in the Lord Jesus—per his red-lettered
words above—is the single thing we need to do. Repetitively running back to the
Lord via repentance is to be the theme of our lives. Now repentance isn’t about
a silly little schoolboy or schoolgirl who has been rebellious; it is genuinely
about just turning back to God. It’s a condition of our sanctity.
The Lord cannot help us from afar. Only as we
draw near—as we abide in him as he abides in us, eternally—are we able to
strangle the threats of Satan in the name of Jesus in one quick and truly easy move.
Remaining in Jesus, constantly recognising his
Presence in our lives by the Holy Spirit, is the way we vouchsafe our
sanctification.
Satan is not interested in fighting us when we
reside with Power, because, quite frankly, there are easier picks for him to
take right now—easier prey. The evil one will wait until we are weak again by
our own volition to turn to things other than God.
***
The enemy of God prowls but doesn’t roar, until we give him a foothold. We are safe whilst we
abide in Jesus—for Jesus has promised to abide eternally with us. Jesus has
said, “Abide in me as I
abide in you.” Whilst we are
there—abiding—we cannot
be touched by Satan. There we are safe and we have Power.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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