2003-02-21
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
The Spirit leads me to continue discussing the ways we can use God’s word to break Satan’s grip on us. To recap, we’ve already discussed: 1) having confidence in the power of Christ’s atoning blood; 2) having faith in Christ’s supremacy and sufficiency; 3) having the courage to claim and use our authority in resisting the forces of evil. Today, we’ll look at 4) having total trust in the imminent power of the Holy Spirit. Peter spoke about this in AC 10: 38, “You know about Jesus of Nazareth and how God poured out on Him the Holy Spirit and power. He went everywhere, doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, for God was with Him.” The next verses help to put all of this in context. AC 10: 39-43, “We are witnesses of everything that He did in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem. Then they put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross. But God raised Him from death three days later and caused Him to appear, not to everyone, but only to the witnesses that God had already chosen, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from death. And He commanded us to preach the Gospel to the people and to testify that He is the One Whom God has appointed Judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets spoke about Him, saying that everyone who believe in Him will have His sins forgiven through the power of His name.”
The word, “imminent,” means “likely to occur at any moment; impending.” This is not to be confused with “immanent,” which means “remaining within; indwelling.” Both of these words actually apply to the Holy Spirit where a believer is concerned. In theology, the word, immanent, can be applied to Christ, the Son, because He is the “visible likeness of the invisible God” [COL 1: 15]. The word, “transcendent” as an adjective means “going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing or extraordinary.” In the theological sense of the word, transcendent is most often used to describe God, the Father. It means “to be above or independent of the universe.” It would be correct to say that God is transcendent; He is not visible to the human eye, is therefore, more mysterious, and yet, is a great Force not to be ignored. On the other hand, Christ, Who is also not to be ignored, is the personality of God which humans have seen. He is the immanent form of the Deity. The Holy Spirit, is perceived by what He does when indwelt in the believer. It is through the Holy Spirit that God causes that “inward transformation by the renewal of one’s mind” [RO 12: 2]. This is no academic exercise to say these things. It helps us to understand the relationship that exists between the three personalities of the Godhead. Each personality has a specific function, which works together to carry out the will of the Father. I feel that understanding this information makes it easier for us to understand why we should keep our faith strong in the power God has and in His way of empowering us to fend off the enemy.
We’ve already discussed the fact that God empowered Christ Who, in turn, empowers mankind to fight off the forces of evil. Christ carries this out by means of the Holy Spirit, Who He obediently sent to us after His physical death on the cross. JN 14: 15-17, 26, “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, Who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, Who reveals the truth about God. the world cannot receive him, because it cannot see Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He remains with you and is in you…The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.” Skeptics might ask: how do we know that Christ fulfilled that promise? To know the Holy Spirit is with us we need only look at the healing that apostles of the early church did and the amazing circumstances that occur in the lives of every true believer. In our own time, we have seen people who one would never think would come to faith do so. Saul of Tarsus is an example from the Bible, but we all know others from our own lives. We have seen miraculous healing from such dreaded diseases as cancer. We have seen people discovering abilities to carry out God’s work in ways they never imagined they could do. And the list of evidence for the Spirit’s presence goes on. In my own life, I have seen myself go from no interest in spiritual matters to wanting to spend my whole life in full-time service to God. As for believing that the Holy Spirit has the power to fend off evil when we are wise enough to seek out the Father for this purpose, we can see it in certain people who have had the courage to go against the pressures of the flesh to do good. In fact, EPH 2: 10, “God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” The link between the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the true believer is supernatural and unbreakable.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have commanded us to trust You, and we sometime struggle to learn to do that. You have told us not to fear Satan and to use Scripture against Him by Christ’s example during His temptation in the wilderness [MT 4: 1-11]. Your compassion and patience for us as we try to come to total trust in You is nothing short of remarkable. When we slip back into our old fears, You give us encouragement through our daily study of Your word and in prayer. James in JAS 4: 7, 10 has made these instructions clear. “So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Our fleshly selves struggle with the word, “submit,” because Satan wants us to doubt Your promises will be kept and Your power to help us through our trials. But, the Holy Spirit, Who is growing in dominance every day in the spiritual vessel of the maturing believer, counters that, causing us to understand that Your power through Him is greater than any power the forces of evil have. 1 JN 4: 4, “But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit Who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.” The Holy Spirit teaches believers that to submit to God is to be righteously and obediently more powerful than any unrighteous person will ever be. This is no reason to become arrogant, because we know that humility is what You teach us. PR 8: 13, “To honor the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.” PR 16: 18, “Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall.” MT 5: 5, “Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!” Dearest Abba, You have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit for many reasons, all of them righteous. One reason is so that we will know how to get the help You offer in dealing with evil. PS 23: 3, “He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bring honor to His name.” PS 18: 1-2, “The Lord is my Protector; He is my strong Fortress. My God is my protection, and with Him I am safe. He protects me like a shield; and defends me and keeps me safe.” To You belongs all the glory and honor. We come to you humbled and confess our sins. We offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, thanks, and utmost praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
The Spirit leads me to write more about our authority to resist evil in tomorrow’s message. I’ve often heard devout believers tell me, “if your life is going easy, then your faith must be weak. Satan loves to attack those who he sees as his enemies the hardest.” There is some real truth in that. I’ve seen such things happen to the teams who serve new people going through Cursillo’s wonderful 4-day retreat program. That is no reason to refuse to go through Cursillo or to remain active in the Cursillo community afterward. This gets right to the heart of trusting in the Holy Spirit to come through for people who are serving God righteously. Repeatedly, I have been privileged to see evidence of the truth of 1 JN 4: 4 [cited above]. The bottom line is our willingness to trust the Lord Who loves us, even when it is difficult and we can’t see a way out of our troubles. Satan will put up a hard fight, but because the Father loves us enough to have given His only begotten Son on the cross for us, we can claim victory against Satan, who was defeated at Calvary. I truly believe that Christ was the “First of many brothers” to be resurrected. All those who are true believers will eventually follow Him to a life of joy, fellowship, and peace in eternity with the Father. We can’t even imagine the depth of the bliss in that fulfillment of the Father’s greatest desire. Peter and I send each one of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn Johnson