This is war!

Genesis 35–36; Job 2; Mark 6; Romans 6

Some health issues are satanic. How do I know this? When I am fervently praying about something very important, like God being glorified in the memorial service for my sister this coming Saturday, the enemy does all sorts of things to stop those prayers. I’ve had to sort them out. Grief is normal, but it can be turned into a severe pity-party and I stop praying. Calls from family and friends are normal but the phone can ring with no purpose from the caller other than to interrupt or keep me from praying. My up/down emotions are normal too, but they can also stop prayer.

This past week, I had a four-day nosebleed and it messed with my prayer life. When that finally stopped, a spell of extreme fatigue began to the point that all I wanted to do was sleep. No cooking, cleaning, reading, none of normally enjoyable activities, nothing. I just wanted to lay on the couch and fall asleep.

Yesterday, one of our young pastors (a gift from God) preached about choices. In his message and in the music, I realized that I was using my feelings to govern my actions and choices to the point that the slightest sense of “I don’t want to” was blown out of proportion. The only option was a long nap.

I realized this was another of the enemy’s schemes. Besides that, several people told me they were praying that Christ would be honored in my sister’s memorial and that jolted me too. My energy level dramatically changed when I prayed that the liar would take a hike.

This morning, chapter 2 of Job tells of how this same enemy approached God and said Job (who passed the first test of not cursing God when his family and wealth were taken) would flunk if he was allowed to attack Job’s health.

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” (Job 2:3–6)

The attack on Job was far more severe than his attack on me. The point was not that I would curse God (or maybe it was) but that I would stop talking to God about His will being done, about His glory being revealed. A smaller version and much shorter story. Job eventually realized his thoughts needed altering and God restored his health and his losses. For me, as soon as I realized this was a spiritual battle, my energy came back — instantly and with joy — and I began to do my work with delight and pray with increased assurance that the Lord was listening. All I can say is WOW!

Mark 6 tells the well-known story of Jesus feeding 5000 plus with five loaves and 2 fish. The Holy Spirit immediately says to me that no matter how puny our efforts may seem to us the Lord Jesus can take our offering and make of it what is needed for the occasion. If I or any of the Christians in my sister’s family praise Him with the little that we might do or say, He can feed others with it. Again, this is a wow kind of God!

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

My sister loved Jesus and as these verses say, she considered herself dead to sin and alive to God. She stands before His throne complete, not that she was perfect but that He gave her His perfection. Her life was all about Jesus; in her death she wanted people to know Him. The enemy of God and of our souls does not want that to happen. The battle is on, but how can a defeated liar win over the Way, the Truth, and the Life? He cannot — and even though I have no idea what will happen, I know that Jesus defeated the liar and gives His people victory.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:10–11)

God’s very life is mine

This morning’s devotional reading from Oswald Chambers is profound. I can only say amen. I wanted to copy/paste it, but in fairness to copyright law, I’ll put it in my own words. He begins with this passage about the Christian’s identification with the death and also the life of Christ . . .

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

Then he shares a marvelous truth: Eternal life is not a copy of the life which Jesus Christ, but the same life. In other words, eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God. He comes to live in those who have been reborn by His grace and power.

That power is not a gift either. The Lord Jesus said, “You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost.” It is the Holy Spirit, not His power but the Spirit Himself imparted to us. When we get right with God, the full life of God comes in. Jesus gives those who believe in Him an endless supply of life — “that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

While we use the word ‘eternal’ eternal Life is not about time. It is about the kind of life that Jesus lived, His very life. He is the sole source of it. It is His life, in us, forever!

This life is experienced by all who believe. It is only limited by how tight I hold on to the rule of self, that old nature that persists in its resistance to the Lordship of Jesus. Yet, as Chambers says, I have to keep letting go of it, dying to it. When I do that, the great full life of God will invade every part of me. It is also possible, even likely, that others will notice that I have been with Jesus.

Oh my, what glory!

Letting go — of what?

Let go and let God is an expression that receives polarized opinions. For many, it is a trite saying that becomes an excuse for disobedience. That is, I can release everything to God; He will do it all and I don’t have to do anything. However, the idea of letting go, if explained, becomes far more than trite. It is the very essence of living for Jesus Christ and in His power.

I didn’t hear from God this morning in Spurgeon’s devotional, so popped open “My Utmost for His Highest” and read these powerful verses about Christian living.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

Oswald Chambers writes about eternal life. He says that this is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on a human level while He walked this earth. Then he says: “ . . . it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God.”

Genuine Christians are those who have made what Chambers calls a “moral decision” about sin. By grace through faith we become children of God who turn from sin because we have a new source of life. That is, all the power that is Jesus Christ now is in us because we are “in Him” and He lives in us.

The Bible says, “You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit.” Notice that this is not power from the Holy Spirit. The power is the Holy Spirit, not something which He gives to me. The life that is in Jesus is made mine — once I made that decision to be identified with Him.

The hard part about getting right with God is always that sin issue. No one wants to come to the Light because our lives are full of sin and the Light will expose it. But once we do, the full life of Jesus Christ comes in “that we might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Chambers points out that this eternal life has nothing to do with time or endlessness as much as it is the quality of life lived by Jesus Christ. He is the only source of it. I, in my weakness and inabilities, can experience this power once I am willing to “let go” of my own.

This is the secret about let go and let God. It is not about sitting back and doing nothing, but about saying no to my own plans, schemes, energies and abilities that “blur the life of Jesus” as Chambers says. I must keep releasing my insistence on these things so that the full life of God will invade and motivate every part of who I am and what I do. It is only by this that I can truly let God have His way in my life. Letting go is about abandoning sin. Letting God is about obedience to Him.

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Lord, I need this reminder. I need to be constantly aware that it is in You that I live and move and have my being. All that I do must be done in the power of Your life, not my own. However, this isn’t about a “better power” (even though Your power is far greater than mine) so much as it is about Your glory. If my life and my skills are selfishly and self-centeredly exercised apart from You, I get the pats on the back. No one will see You in me or realize that I am Your child when I refuse to let go. Considering myself dead to sin and alive to You is letting go, but it is also a far cry from sitting back and doing nothing. It remains the greatest challenge of being a Christian.