Quenching the Fiery Darts of Satan

Paul warned Timothy that everyone who endeavored to live a godly life would suffer persecution (II Timothy 3:12). Undoubtedly, the bulk of this persecution comes not only from physical entities, but from spiritual ones as well. That’s because we wrestle not against anti-Christian governmental authorities and belligerent people who oppose the gospel, but against invisible powers and principalities, against wicked spirits in high places who seek to control our minds and distort our thought patterns (II Corinthians 10:3-5). Indeed, the powers of darkness are just as active and influential here in North America as they are in communist nations and other countries closed off to the gospel.

In the game of chess, one player makes a move and the other opponent then reacts to the move with a strategy of his own, usually in defense or attack. The same can be seen in the spiritual realm. Paul, for instance, was very clear about his intentions to forgive a man so as to not allow Satan the advantage of entering into his own life (II Corinthians 2:10-11). He explained this was because he was not ignorant of Satan’s devices. Paul knew the moves he had to make in order to safeguard his soul. He knew that as long as he harbored unforgiveness toward any person, the powers of darkness would have an advantage over him. And so he followed the direction of the Holy Spirit and forgave the man in question. Satan’s entry into Paul’s life was blocked! 

God’s Word shows us how to prevent the powers of darkness from taking advantage over us. In fact, the Bible not only shows us what we are to look for, but how to respond to Satan’s schemes when we are attacked. When we submit ourselves to the defensive directions God’s Word, the Holy Spirit alerts us to every attack of the enemy and equips us with the grace we need to overcome in the moment of our testing. This grace is given to all those who humble themselves and bow their will to the power of the cross (James 4:6).

By humbling ourselves, we allow the Lord to break us. The Word of God says that we are like vessels (2 Timothy 2:20-22). And when a vessel is broken, light begins to shimmer through the cracks and shards. The inside of the cup then becomes exposed as the light shines in and out of it. And with this light, we begin to see how the powers of darkness move and the tactics they so often use to beset us.

To defend ourselves from their schemes, God gives us several pieces of spiritual armor. Above all, He gives us what the Bible calls the “shield of faith” (Ephesians 6:16). Shields, like all other pieces of armor, are defensive. They are used to deflect arrows and block sword thrusts. In this case, we are told that Satan has “fiery darts” which he hurls at us in battle. These darts are poisonous impulses and corrupt suggestions which seek to enter our minds and paralyze our walks with God. Darts can come in the form of unforgiveness and grudges, sexual lust, the love of money, the cares of the world, the fear of the future, religious pride, accusations and criticism. These flaming darts are aimed at the mind and seek to penetrate our thought life. If they enter in and stick, the fire they bring ignites into blazing strongholds and we become consumed with depression, defeat, fear and doubt. This is Satan’s consuming fire.

The Lord has decreed that it is often necessary that we go through these fiery trials (I Peter 4:12), as the purpose for them is to break us to the point where we able to receive His grace and be a ministry of life to others. But before this can happen, we must first suffer many defeats, and these defeats are designed to crush our pride. During these defeats we learn that we are not strong enough to quench Satan’s darts in our own power, and that simple faith, void of any kind of human willpower or determination, alone is the victory (I John 5:4). But what is this victorious faith based upon?

Before we answer this, we must first understand that the Christian life is both a battle (2 Timothy 2:3-4), and a rest (Matthew11:28-30; Hebrews 4:10). This seems like a paradox! When we realize the war has already been won on Calvary (Colossians 2:15), we can think there is nothing for us to do now but to sit back and relax and enjoy life. But this is not so. We still find ourselves in the midst of a campaign where the forces of darkness battle for our minds and seek to vex our souls. This is because when Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, Satan was not destroyed. The power for him to tempt God’s children and the possibility for them to fall into sin was not done away with. Satan was still allowed to keep his grip over the world’s system the same as he always had since Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the garden. The significance instead would come to those who were predestined to have their “old men” slain in Christ before the foundation of the world, and be installed with “new men” who would no longer be slaves to sin, but fashioned in the image of Christ (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9).

But this is blessed transition not available to the unconverted. Satan still has control over the children of the world, for they are his own (John 8:44). He has blinded his own children to the truth of the gospel (II Corinthians 4:4), so they would remain enslaved to his obedience (2 Timothy 2:26). Indeed, the whole world is in the grip of the wicked one (I John 5:19). But God’s children, blood-ransomed, are no longer in his grip!

Though God’s children may indeed fall into sin, theirs is no longer a habitual practice like the children of the devil. This is because God’s children have a “new man” living in them, a quickened spirit, made in the image of Christ (II Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24), and this “new man” does all he can to prevent Satan’s fiery darts from polluting the mind, for he has replaced the “old man” who has been killed by God (Romans 6:6). The “new man” installed in his place is not a slave of the devil, but rather a slave to the righteousness of God (Romans 6:18). Like Jesus, his only will is to obey his Father (John 4:34). But, as we see from scripture, this “new man” must be systematically fed and strengthened by God’s Spirit (Ephesians 3:16), lest a fiery temptation overwhelm us and we succumb to the deceit of sin.

The Holy Spirit gives us a great lesson in spiritual warfare through the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan. Notice that Satan came to Him with these suggestions: “Turn the stones into bread” and “Jump off the temple” and “Worship me for riches and fame”.

The first temptation sought to draw out the principle of self, to induce Jesus to use God’s power on Himself autonomously. Jesus struck back with the context of the scripture rightfully re-aligned upon God and rebuffed him. The second temptation sought to draw out a carnal assumption – jump and the angels will catch you – based upon spiritual pride. Again Jesus fired back with scripture dispelling the assumption and elevating God back to His place of sovereign reverence. Seeing he could make no headway with the Son of God, Satan then catered directly with raw appeal to the flesh: worship me and the world is yours. He uses the exact same method with us!

If Satan realizes he cannot twist scripture to his advantage, he will seek other ways to win us. Many believers who are well-versed in sound theology are nevertheless in bondage to internet pornography. Others run after money and worldly success and think they can still love and serve God, despite all their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew acquired in seminary. Satan’s flaming arrows enter their minds, and there they stick, laying down poisonous roots and blinding their victims with the smoke. In truth, so many scholars and pastors and theologians who can properly dissect God’s Word with exegetical precision are yet inwardly defeated and thus totally ignorant of the enemy’s devices!

If we are to quench these darts with the shield of faith, we must understand the object in which our faith is invested. In this case, the object of our faith is the blood of Jesus (Romans 3:25).  Yes, faith in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ is the shield that quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one. If we can understand the full advantage God has afforded us through the blood of Jesus, we will see the quenching shield come up at once! Every dart can then be quenched, and we will escape each satanic attack of the mind unscathed, just as Daniel escaped the fiery furnace with not a single thread of this garment singed.

As already mentioned, the Christian life is both a battle and a rest. The battle is in keeping our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and the rest comes from exercising the faith He authors in the sanctifying work of the blood of His cross. When we understand what “justified by the blood” means, our inner man suddenly finds divine strength to resist the enemy (Romans 5:9). To say we are “justified by the blood of Christ” means that we are made perfect in the sight of God by virtue of our faith in that promise. It’s that simple. When you are weak enough, you will come to see this truth, believe it, and then find your rest. Satan will not be able to harm your mind anymore with his darts, for you will have light on the eternal measure of God’s unconditional love for you and your position of blessed sonship in the Risen Savior through His holy blood (Romans 5:5; 8:38-39). And if you sin, there is no condemnation when you humble yourself and confess the sin. In that very moment, the blood of Christ cleanses you completely (I John 1:7). Faith in the blood restores you to a state of perfection. It doesn’t merely cover your sin, as you cover a stain on a carpet. If it only did this, Satan could pull back the cover anytime and still accuse you. No, the blood cleanses the stain to where it is gone forever, with no trace, as if the stain never occurred. This is how God can say, “Your sins I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Do you have faith for this? Be it unto you according to your faith!    

As soon as the Holy Spirit alerts our conscience to any kind of invading danger from the enemy, we are required to do three things: Firstly, we must resist the initial impulse. This can be difficult and we will undoubtedly suffer to some extent in the flesh even when our inner men are strong, but by doing this we follow in the example of Christ our Forerunner! (1 Peter 4:1)  Secondly, we must quench the impulse with the faith that Satan was defeated on the cross, and that the blood of the Son of God imputes to us a state of impeccability before the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21). As a result, there will be no more satanic condemnation to the conscience (Hebrews 9:14). This is the testimony of the blood we use to overcome the powers of darkness (Revelation 12:11). And finally, we must unsheathe the sword of the Spirit and rebuff Satan’s attack just like Jesus our Forerunner did with “It is written.” As Jesus was, so are we to be in this world (I John 4:17).

If Satan hurls a fiery dart tempting you to be unforgiving toward someone who has wronged you, after you quench the dart, counter his attack with a scripture like: “Be kind and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). If you are tempted with a dart to be selfish and greedy, you can counter it with “Let each of you look not only on his own interests, but the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). If you are tempted to be superficially judgmental in spiritual matters, counter the dart with words of Jesus Himself: “Do not judge by appearances” (John 7:24). If you are tempted with money: “But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction” (I Timothy 6:9). Fear of an uncertain future: “Be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). If you are tempted to be envious of unbelievers living in the lap of luxury, you can use these verses to swing back: “Do not envy the wicked” (Proverbs 24:1) and “My feet had almost stumbled, for I was envious of the boastful” (Psalms 73:23).

For every dart Satan hurls, you have the shield of faith in the unlimited power of Christ’s blood, and the sharp sword of scripture to repel his attack. But, dear soldier, the initial responsibility to resist is always begins with you.

     So fight the good fight of faith! Amen.

Don’t Allow Satan to Distort God’s Love for You

If we do not understand the totality of God’s forgiveness and of the absolute cleansing and justification afforded us by the blood of Christ, the powers of darkness can keep us in dungeons of despair each time we fail (John 17:23; Ephesians 3:18-19; I John 4:8, 16, 19).

God’s love is such that it cannot be comprehended through the mortal and corruptible mind of man. It must be spiritually conveyed. So many believers doubt God’s love in light in sight of their sin and failure; they doubt the restorative power of Christ’s blood to cleanse and justify them unto perfection after each failure in flesh (Romans 5:9; I John 1:7, 9). Because of this, Satan is able to keep their souls in distress and their minds forever doubting God’s promises.

The enemy badgers them with notions of uselessness to God and the hopelessness for ever experiencing victory over their besetting sins. He convinces them their testimony is futile and their birthright in Christ is to no effect. He works on distorting the image of God to such an extent as to make Him seem like a hideous tyrant. He endeavors to steer the thoughts of God’s children toward an abandonment of religion, with full-blown atheism lurking just around the corner upon their intellectual acquiescence. The slippery path for all this begins with a simple doubt in God’s love to the dismissal of sin through Christ’s blood.

Do not allow Satan to distort God’s true thoughts for you. Always remember that, even in face of failure, God’s benevolence toward you is yet unchanged (Luke 15:20; Romans 2:14; Ephesians 2:4-10). God’s love for you during times of defeat is still more compassionate, deeper, purer and higher than the greatest act of human love can ever muster in comparison. The Lord dearly pities you, despite all the false signals of your emotions. He remembers that you are made of dust. Dear saint, accept by faith these true character descriptions of God as you battle temptation in the foxholes of spiritual warfare (Psalm 55:20; 103: 8, 13-14; Jeremiah 29:11; Zechariah 2:8; Luke 12:32; Philippians 1:6; Romans 8:28).

Exercise faith in the fact that Jesus cares for you and always seeks to restore your spirit to the Father (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25); acknowledge that God’s Spirit is always wooing your spirit back to His own through the holy blood of Jesus Christ, back to a perfect cleansing and a precious reconciliation with Himself and the glory of His love for you. Begin to see God’s grace extending to you from within the boundless realms of eternity, through His Son’s shed blood. His Spirit yearns to ever indwell your vessel by faith. Yield to this truth! Be inspired by the fact that from every impulse of ungodliness, the Holy Spirit seeks to realign you from the sinister powers of the air which fuel your flesh to rebel against His grace.

From the unapproachable portals of eternal glory, the blood of Jesus Christ flows with pardoning grace, pleading on our behalf before God’s Face and endlessly confirming by the Holy Spirit our positions of beloved sonship in Christ (Romans 8:15-16; I Timothy 6:16). O, dear saint, pray that God would open your eyes to this life-transforming truth. Ask Him today to show you the tokens of His love through the blood of Christ. Allow this revelation to henceforth propel the resistance to all wickedness found in your thoughts, speech and actions, as illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Learn to walk steadily and soberly with your mind secured in Christ, and with all your affections trained upon His matchless beauty and goodness. And as much as possible, abide each second of each day by faith in the sin-cleansing fountain of the Lord Jesus Christ, and let all your warfare against temptation be done concurrently in this realm through the channel of His grace.

Brother Paul

God’s Children Grow in the Dark

If God’s ways are not according to human logic, this truth is nowhere more evident than in the way He grows His children in sanctification and wisdom. Saplings sprout upon the earth under direct sunlight and in optimal temperatures, but in contrast to this, God’s children grow in the darkness, at night during times of trial and testing. They are refreshed in the sunlit presence of the Lord with spiritual reprieve and rejuvenation – but they grow in holiness and sanctification in the dark. As seeds germinate beneath the soil in sun-deprived darkness; as the Lord knits babies together in the darkness of their mothers’ wombs, so the Lord knits our spiritual bones and substance together in dark wombs of affliction. Did not Samson’s hair grow back while He was in darkness? Did not God recapture Jonah’s growth in obedience while in the dark belly of a fish? Was it not from the darkness of the wilderness temptations that Jesus came out with the Spirit of the Lord upon Him for ministry? Did not even Almighty God form the universe in the void of created darkness, before the initial command of light?

Look at an earthly child. He eats and plays during the day, when sunlight encompasses his world. But at night, while sleeping, the food he ate miraculously transforms into bone and muscle. It is in the darkness of sleep and in the cocoon of sunless dormancy where his actual growth takes place – and to the extent that when he awakens, he is noticeably taller and his features all the more defined and mature. All parents have observed this bittersweet metamorphosis in their children.

Beloved, God’s children grow in the dark as well. In the dark cocoon of trials and difficulties are their brilliant colors formed, and wings of faith made – wings designed to bring them to God’s throne of grace. This is why we are taught not to despise the chastening and correction of the Lord; this is why we are to embrace His rod, His dark cocoon of flesh-mortification, His molten furnace of tests and trials and temptations. Gold is purified in the melting pot, and it is in the fire where the precious elements of earth gain their worth in the estimation of men. The Christian, likewise, is tempered and seasoned and grown in uncomfortable atmospheres which seem unfruitful for the furtherance of life. But not so according to the divine wisdom of our God. We know our infinitely-wise Father forever seeks the utmost good for His children, and if it means death in the fire or soul-suffocation in a  temporal den of failure and misery, then this is where He will lead them.

Remember this the next time you fail. The night cometh; the fire is kindled – and our voluntary suffering in the flesh is God’s will for the promotion of Christ’s Life in our vessels. The flesh suffers so the precious elements of the spirit can come forth with brilliancy. Yes, enter into God’s appointed chamber of growth with weeping and mourning over your own unprofitable resolutions, your myriad of failures, your broken aspirations to please Him. But know that God’s plans for your life are not negated in the least within the cocoon of darkness, but rather forged upon the anvil of suffering. If you trust Him, He will see you though the furnace. He will hold you in His mighty Hand while you sleep, and when the sun at last arises, you will have grown. And your growth will be noticeable to all.

The caterpillar crawls into the bonds of the cocoon only to one day fly away in the light of liberation and beauty. The worm’s means of freedom grew while he slept in the darkness, and yours will as well. Allow God keep you in the lair of darkness to bring you into glorious knowledge of the liberty of grace. His plan for your life is to adorn you in the beauty of Christ; to mint you with His life, and to impart His divine nature in you to such a degree that you might fly above all the darkness of sin and bondage of the earth’s pull.

Brother Paul

Mastery of the Subject

Very often, a believer will fail a test of God and hesitate in getting back up. The believer was perhaps living a life of victory, clean before God and enjoying the resources of Christ’s Life, when a temptation of some sort hit and suddenly took them down. They thought they were strong; they thought they could stand up to it and resist. They had been walking in the Spirit that morning; by the evening, however, they are cast down and find themselves once again in the dregs of a besetting sin. Because they loathe themselves to such a degree, they have a great reluctance to be recovered before God. This is because they feel their Christianity is just not “working” and therefore any continuation of it is futile.

These children, in their depression, must be encouraged with the truth of all-loving, all-wise Father who allows certain things to happen for the furtherance of their good. This is not to say that God condones or causes sinful acts. We know from scripture that God will allow the tempter of souls to strike at the hearts of His children – and always for a specific purpose. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tested by Satan; Jesus foretold of Peter’s allowance to be sifted by request of Satan; Satan asked to destroy all which righteous Job held in possession, and God granted it. If the enemy had asked to sift someone like Peter (who was strong in the faith, but weak in the flesh), the enemy will also ask to sift someone like you and me. And God may allow it in time. When He permits the enemy to strike, a strong presentation to engage in evil will suddenly come to your mind. It will come as a rebellion against the light God has already given you on the matter. Previously, you could hold your ground against it and resist it with power – but suddenly it’s coming in like a tsunami and you’re not ready. Your mind is weak; the flesh is howling for release; the voice of your conscience is quickly fading.

When you fail God, you fail against the will of your inner man. If you could push a button to stop the temptation, you would do it in a heartbeat. You don’t want to sin, but in those dire moments you feel yourself helpless, overpowered and flesh-dominated. It is never the Lord’s will that we fail during these times of testing, but if we are going to fail, He already knew it and still permitted our testing. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this concept because we are so used to processing information in patterns of human logic. It’s difficult for us to compute God allowing something to happen to us knowing it will cause us to sin. Didn’t God already know Peter would deny the Christ, yet allowed the ordeal to happen all the same? Yes. The Lord is not an earthly teacher. An earthly teacher, when she gives a test, does not know her pupils’ results until after the test is taken. But God knows the results beforehand, and still administers the test in order to teach His children the subject matter in a much more effective way.

The reason He allows such tests is to show us that only Christ can pass them. When we fail a test, it is because we took the test ourselves. The great end of all God’s testing in allowing the devil to sift us is to show that only Christ can pass. When we take a test and fail, our eyes are usually blind to the fact that we took the test ourselves. There is a reluctance to look up to God because of our sense of hopelessness. A defeatist mindset encompasses us and we begin to see ourselves as worthless subjects. Ah – but this is precisely the reason this Teacher of teachers gave us the test! To foster within us this very understanding of our inability to master the subject matter. An earthly teacher introduces the subject matter to her students for them to display it comprehensibly on the test; God, in contrast, uses the test’s incomprehensibility to demonstrate the subject matter to His children. And the subject matter is the grace of Jesus Christ.

The problem is when the failed student stays down when God would have him get up and continue on. God wills that after each test-failure we would approach the blood of Christ through confession of our failure and be restored. He calls us to look into His Word to see where we had gone astray. In this regard the Word of God is like a mirror which sits upon a wash-basin filled with Christ’s blood. Our loving Father’s only requirement for His failing child? Look, confess, and wash. That is His remedial program. When you fail any test, you return to this basin. The more you come to it, the more you will be transformed with the wisdom which comes from above.

So, my dear reader, never stay down after you flunk a test in God’s school. Pick yourself up after you fall and go to the mirror of God’s Word and wash in the fountain of Christ’s blood. There was a purpose God allowed the enemy to tempt your heart and wound your soul. Perhaps you had been growing too proud; perhaps you were beginning to leave your first love; perhaps you had forgotten how God had cleansed you from your former sins. Whatever the case was, do not stay down. Come up and confess. Get cleaned up! The subject matter you were unprepared for was the employment of the grace of Jesus Christ. The test’s purpose – as with every one of God’s tests – is to teach you that you cannot pass any of them but for the grace of the life of Jesus in you.

May the mastery of this subject be a consuming passion in our daily life.

Brother Paul

God’s Word Sustains the Inner Man

An ever-increasing conformity to Christ in the inner recesses of the heart and mind – this is the only asset worth clinging to in this ruined world. It is surely the only thing worth fighting for, transcending the interests of politics, wealth, power and sex. There is nothing in the world the devil can use to bargain an exchange for the partaking of Christ’s divine nature. Gold becomes ridiculous; money is worthless trash; the finest palace on earth is a slum; the most seductive women are to be pitied on account of their lost souls. If you aspire to make anything out of your life for God, and to live at a level as never an earthly king dreamt, then allow the Holy Spirit to sculpt the image of Christ into your soul by yielding to His mortifying chisel day after day.

Let him correct you, and bow to His correction. Bow to it immediately when God convicts you of sin in the inward parts. Every wayward thought; every impulse of lust; every critical thought; every selfish motive must be garnered and then diffused through God’s grace.  Intentions – no matter how noble – must come under the microscope. A yielding must take place to where our thoughts are first run through a filter of grace before they are verbalized and released. Power is offered to us by God for this! But this power must be asked for, and the application is accomplished by importunate prayer. If you begin this prayer today, you will have put something in motion so tremendous that it makes even the angels in heaven peer at God’s children in awe.

The nature of Christ living through redeemed man is the greatest treasure in the entire universe, and, even more amazingly, it is but the down-payment of something even greater that awaits us: the earnest of glory in a perfect, sinless body and mind with our Father for all eternity. He affords us a foretaste here. Many are the afflictions of the righteous on earth, but God delivers us out of them all. We get sick, our loved ones die, we are mistreated by unbelievers, we are maligned by false brethren, and, above all, we are attacked daily by spiritual evil through our flesh and the world’s system. But despite all this, we are still more than conquerors and need never lose the joy of the Lord, for He alone has overcome the world; He alone has risen from the dead; His Spirit breathes life into ours and animates the life of God within our vessels of clay.

God’s grace is given unto us to fight and win the race. The true grace of God is employed through the Holy Spirit so we make no fleshly provision, or become unequally yoked with the subjects of darkness. Grace is waiting to be won by our prayers to protect our hearts and minds from the inauguration of strongholds. The victorious life of God is rejuvenated and renewed in our own spirits through prayer. Pray, then, often for this power; pray throughout the day in your heart with spontaneous desire, with thirst and craving, as the single most coveted blessing you can possible ask for. From the overcoming ocean of God’s grace in your life, all the other rivers of life will automatically flow: rivers of ministry to bless others; rivers compassion for the small and weak; rivers of gentleness and humility toward your neighbor; and rivers of unfeigned love for a lost world.

Perhaps you have been taught that full victory over the lusts of the heart, over anger and critical thinking is not possible in this life, but I want to tell you in Jesus’ Name that victory is assured if you can but lay hold of God’s New Covenant promise through faith. Victory, however, does not mean that there will not be a struggle. You will still fight the flesh and devil every day, but you will begin to battle them from inside the strength of God and gain the victory through the power of grace. You will be blessed in enduring temptation, where in the past you were accustomed to yielding and defiling your conscience.

The Word of God is like a grain factory where seeds are made available for the baking of Bread. This Bread is Christ, and it is His Life in us which sustains the inner man. The holy grain is gathered and brought into our hearts for baking through meditation and our inward obedience to the light of the Spirit’s voice. This baking process produces Bread which nourishes and protects our spirits from the entrapments of wickedness through the impartation of Christ’s glorious nature. This is why we should read the New Testament slowly; we need to take our time with the baking; we must give the Bread of Life allowance to rise within our hearts and season us with grace.

The power of God is given to overcome sin at the heart-level and become progressively conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This is His ultimate will for you. This is what He wants you to pray for. It is far greater than any conceivable item of creation; it is the pearl of great price, and it is worth your entire life to aspire toward. Do not waste another day! Ask God to begin the process of fostering Christ’s divine nature in your life today. Come with all your weakness and failure and misery. Your only requirement is poverty in spirit and a thirst to have your heavy burden removed. A river is waiting to burst forth from your bosom, and God is impartial as through whom it proceeds.

Daily Renewal in the Spirit of the Mind

It is clear from scripture that the spirit of a believer is not in a fixed state of strength. As the physical body of a human weakens if it does not eat and sleep – so the spiritual body of a believer also wanes in strength over time if not rejuvenated through the Holy Spirit. We are constantly winding down in our hearts and minds as we confront the evil of each day. It is for this reason the Word of God exhorts us to be renewed and transformed in our spirits.

The world ages and weakens us. The flesh is hostile to the health of our inner men, and therefore must be put down. Behind these twin enemies is the devil, controlling and contorting the world’s system to rile the flesh. The longer the spirit is left unrenewed, the more feeble it becomes and thus susceptible to becoming overwhelmed. But God shows us how to stay new in spirit by remaining connected to His Spirit. Apart from His Power, we are dead; we are like withering branches and fish pulled from the sea. But the moment we reconnect to Him we are given restorative life, fresh power, blood-washing and victorious grace.

We are called to be renewed, first of all, in the spirit of our minds. The Heavenly-minded man or woman is always fighting a war in their mind to keep Jesus Christ the object of their preoccupation. Like Old Testament manna, they know the nourishment they received yesterday is unfit for consumption today. It must be new; today’s bread must proceed directly from the mouth of God. In order for the spirit to receive the bread, the mind must cease thinking upon and being entertained by worldly information and vanity. This requires a deliberate action on the part of the believer, as God will not force the mind to look to Christ.

He instead waits, and when He sees the mind of a believer resisting the world and flesh in its attempt to look to Him for spiritual renewal, He accepts the effort and infuses newness through the knowledge of Christ. The renewing of the mind is like the refueling of an automobile. When our spirits run out of gas we stop going forward with God and become sitting prey on the side of the highway for the enemy. Sadly, many Christians are broken down on the side of the road, walking with their heads down, dejected and defeated and depressed. They’ve run out of gas; their spirits are old and worn and too weak to fight. They need renewal.

Healthy Christians are daily-renewed Christians, full of Christ’s life and power over sin. They see themselves as living amidst an ever-flowing fountain of blood and grace. They keep a careful watch over their minds and hearts. They are quick to confess secret sins in the inward parts. They cherish their Father’s holiness and seek to be continuously filled and refilled with His Spirit to face the wicked challenge each day brings. They have learnt what to do to keep their tanks full and prevent roadside calamities.

Begin to see your mind as a receptor for the spirit’s condition. Use it to connect with God at the beginning of each day to be made new and kept afresh. Employ your spirit through holy meditation to dwell upon Christ’s majestic goodness. Accustom the spirit of your mind to seek His renewal; to cleanse you in His blood, to give you grace to overcome sin in the moment of temptation, to give you grace and power and compassion for others. He is ready to do this for you each day, all day. Have faith that He hears your request as you look to Him through eyes of humility and weakness. Tell Him you are a failure without His strength; that you are old and worn and weak. Confess that your cup will run dry, your tank will go empty if He withhold His newness of life from your spirit.

God is not partial to anyone, but abundantly giving to all who call on Him in true humility. Blessed renewals of power and grace are waiting to flow from His Hand to the spirits His children.

Brother Paul

Quenching the Missiles of Satan

“Keep thy heart with all diligence..” (Proverbs 4:23)

The follower of Jesus Christ has been entrusted by God to diligently keep his or her heart safe in the midst of this evil world. The word “keep” denotes maintenance and a preservation. The blood-washed believer who is walking before the face of God with clean hands and a pure heart is exhorted by the Holy Spirit to continue as such, and to the believer who acquiesces, grace is given by God to overcome the whole world and rejoice daily in Christ.

It is a daily duty to keep the heart with all diligence. It is both an obligation for holiness and a necessity for spiritual health to keep careful watch over the breathings of the heart. This is because the new heart is susceptible to outside spiritual attacks and potential infestations if not kept and renewed in grace. A good illustration is a celestial body – a planet or a moon – suspended in space without an atmosphere. Trajectories are able to impact its surface and make craters. Craters are depressions. The heart unkept is like a planet without an atmosphere; it is prey to all the flying garbage of space. There is no buffer zone. Lustful temptations strike the surface and cause huge explosions leading to depression. The influences of the world speed toward it like fiery comets and make full impact, rocking it on its axis. There is no protection from extraneous contaminates.

On the contrary, the heart well-kept and guarded by grace is like a planet with an atmosphere. The atmosphere burns up cosmic garbage and thus prevents the damage and depression of craters. These are like the “flaming trials” which cause us to suffer in the flesh but prevent sin from bringing dejection and failure to the conscience. The atmospheric grace of God upon the heart and mind of the believer is like a fiery curtain hostile to outside contaminates.

Hostile thoughts and impulses target our minds and hearts daily. These spiritual trajectories seek to make impact and cause explosive depressions in our minds. They aim to wound our consciences with the remembrance of sin and create a frustration between us and God’s grace. God’s grace is given to “keep” the heart from being overpowered by these attacks and preserve the conscience from defilement.

Once, when we lived in the flesh to the fulfilling of the lusts of our minds and pride of life, we were like orphaned moons without an atmosphere, empty and without God in space. But Jesus rose from the dead and sent down the Holy Spirit to encompass our bodies with a protective atmosphere through grace. We are no longer orphans; we are now the sons and daughters of God and heirs to a Heavenly Kingdom whose majesty and glory no words can describe. As the earnest for this promise, God has given us a foretaste through the Holy Spirit. He abides in us now; He protects us from the trajectories of Satan: from the comets of lust, the meteors of pride, the asteroids of discouragement.

He sheds His love abroad in our hearts and provides a magnificent atmosphere and blanket of protection. And if we keep our hearts with all diligence, He will continue to do so, with ever-increasing glory and power and light. The next time a piece of space junk comes flying your way, remember that you have an atmosphere to burn it up. The next time you are tempted to get angry, remember to protect your heart from the invasion by activating God’s grace. The next time you find yourself on the verge of an impure thought, instantly quench the meteor’s impact through the blood of Christ and watch it burn up in the stratosphere of grace. In the moment of need, you will find God’s grace ever faithful to deliver and “keep” you from sin. The flesh will suffer temporarily as the alien force disintegrates above your head, but there will be no impact, no defilement, no crater of depression. You can win the battle through Christ!

The Inhibition of Fleshly Lusts

A Scottish biologist inadvertently discovered penicillin in 1928 when he noticed a radius of destroyed bacteria surrounding a piece of mould in a plate culture. Since that time, antibiotics have been mass produced and used to treat millions of people with bacterial infections. This epiphany in science parallels a deep truth in spiritual warfare: the arming of the mind of Christ to the inhibition of fleshly lusts. As bacterial colonies cannot proliferate within the proximity of penicillin, so the lusts of the flesh cannot colonize when a child of God walks in the Spirit with the mind of Christ.

The “armament” of the mind in the Bible is based upon a Greek term for weapon. It denotes an ancient warrior holding a shield and javelin. In this context, the Christian fights against the lusts of the flesh which war against the soul. If the soldier is not armed for this conflict, his or her soul will be overrun and infected by the advancing troops. To guard the mind against the bacteria of sin, it must be daily renewed and armed in Christ. But how is this accomplished?

A piece of mould must be placed upon the dish and allowed to rot before it can effect the bacteria surrounding it. A death must occur to the principle of self to where the overpowering life of Another is activated. Once this power is exuded through the mould, the bacteria are expelled. In spiritual terms, this death for the believer comes through an identification with Christ’s own death and a subsequent internal resignation to the mortifying power of the Holy Spirit. As the piece of mould in the dish is immobile yet deadly to the bacteria, so the armed Christian, though dead, yet emits a Power fatal to the lusts of his or her flesh.

Every Christian should be occupied with the overcoming of spiritual contaminates seeking to enter the mind and heart through sin. To prepare for this, we must allow the Word of God to dwell within us richly, and the peace of God to rule our hearts. If we would be conquerors, we must attune our minds to engage the soft dealings of death impressed upon us daily by the Holy Spirit. As lone pieces of mould amidst perverse colonies of bacteria we must see ourselves as dead on the plate but alive to the Master who infuses our dead bodies with grace and power and overcoming life. O hallelujah! This is the New Covenant.

“…as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (I Peter 4:1-2).

Brother Paul

Secret Victory – Open Fragrance

The Christian life is a secret war. It is a war unlike any other ever waged in the history of the world. It is fought within the secret hills and valleys of a battlefield which carnal eyes cannot see. The fighting is hidden, the suffering is silent. The belligerents are eternal spirit forces manifesting attrition within the temporal canvas of time. All followers of Christ are immediately conscripted into this war upon the New Birth, yet not all followers have taken up arms. These are the conscientious objectors, and they do not overcome the foe but remain defeated and spiritually impotent.

But the followers who fight and fall, fall and fight are granted measures of ever-increasing light. They are protected by God and enjoy divine rejuvenation daily. Their many wounds are treated; their souls are healed. If they continue to fight and not abandon rank, they are promised food, armor and restored health. They are assured of final victory, though the individual battles are fierce and sometimes lost.

The lost battles are used for good – they are designed by God for an ultimate beneficial purpose. They are the seedbeds from which grace is grown; grace, which in turn, will blossom into secret flowers of victory. As the soldier advances unto perfection, these flowers begin to give off more and more fragrance. The more the flowers proliferate upon the battlefield, the more the fragrance becomes apparent not only to the soldier in secret, but to others who may be strangers to the war.

The Holy Spirit is given to abide within bosom of each and every soldier of God’s army. He points to Jesus Christ and to the ever-blazing light of the grace of His holiness. It is a revelatory light. It reveals the camp of the enemy; the strategy of God’s foe; the schemes of Satan. It prepares the soldier beforehand and equips him with the grace to overcome during the time of the battle. The Holy Spirit is given that the follower of Christ might always triumph on the battlefield, and win another secret victory.

If given the choice between the gifts of the spirit or the fragrance of fruit, I would choose the fragrance; for it is among the fragrance that the gifts are manifest. Set your heart, therefore, on gaining secret victories upon the hidden battlefield of your heart and mind and do not fret if you become wounded. God has abundant grace to bind your broken heart and restore you upon the war paths of righteousness. Victory will come in time! This I assure you. It comes first as a trickle, sporadically, followed by more setbacks. A pattern will soon emerge as God teaches you more about the enemy and the devices he employs. All God’s teachings direct the soldier to the power of blood of Christ and the sin-mortifying grace of the Holy Spirit.

Secret victories lend to the open fragrance of life in Jesus Christ. Dear believer, you can overcome on the battlefield and be a vessel of edification. There is not an enemy in the ranks of Satan which God’s grace cannot instantly vanquish. There is not a temptation of the flesh and mind which cannot be overcome and cleansed by the holy blood of God. The joy of the soldier never need be broken – even during defeat.

“Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all” (I Timothy 4:15).

Brother Paul

Defeating the Uncircumcised Philistines of the Heart

For those who continuously suffer under the weight of spiritual defeat, the gospel is “Good News” indeed. It is a message of both salvation from sin and the subsequent deliverance from Satan’s power. Yet far too many believers seem to have only grasped the message of the former. As a result they go up and down in cycles of excitement and depression, happiness and anxiety, victory and defeat. They know they can experience God’s forgiveness of sin through Christ, but on how to prevent the acts of sin they are completely powerless. They think memorizing scripture verses or fasting or prolonged prayer will somehow equip them with this power.

It is easy to get into this sort of rut. Especially when you allow yourself to be influenced by preachers and teachers who are themselves defeated inwardly and yet do not know any better. The principalities and powers which govern this world’s system, if they cannot prevent the knowledge of forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, will do all they can to corrupt the message of deliverance from sin’s power. The pervasive power of the flesh’s nature makes it easy for us to believe in the hopelessness of deliverance. This coupled with the poison of sinless perfection makes for a very persuasive argument in avoiding the topic of deliverance altogether.

But, we must ask ourselves, what does the Bible teach? What has God promised in His Word? If deliverance from sin’s power is there, then surely it must be a truth as universal as the forgiveness of sin, and one to be appropriated by faith as readily as any other promise in God’s Word.

Dear reader, has this been your experience? Have you labored against impure lusts, against fear, discouragements, the love of money, anxiety, jealousy, pride, greed, hypocrisy, laziness, gluttony, anger, disbelief, self-acclaim, malice? Do you face these enemies with your shield raised, sword-in-fist and teeth clenched? Do the onslaughts of these uncircumcised Philistines wreak havoc in your devotion life, your family life, and contaminate all of your daily doings? Has it occurred to you that God’s will for your life is to overcome them all and experience a systematic triumph each and every time? If you have resigned your soul to an endless cycle of defeat and forgiveness, then I believe you’ve missed the most wonderful aspect of your birthright in Christ. Like Esau, a deceiver has cheated you out of what is yours for a temporary fulfillment of carnal indulgence.

Do not let Satan rob you of God’s deliverance another day. Jesus Christ is your Savior by faith; He is also your Deliverer by faith. As with your salvation, you can only be delivered from the power of sin by faith through grace. If you are yet expecting to be delivered through the efforts of self-determination and religious willpower, a thousand years will go by and you will still be defeated. You will go to your grave having never tasted of the glorious triumph over sin offered to you though Jesus Christ.

Many believers never enter into this experience simply out of ignorance of this one truth: The grace of God is the power which enables us to overcome sin, and this power is appropriated by faith, and not through any human effort. They who seek to slay Goliath using Saul’s armor undertake a mission of suicidal lunacy! We can never in a million years win a battle predicated upon spiritual evil. Remember, we wrestle not against flesh and blood – we therefore cannot use flesh as a weapon against flesh. Our battles are altogether spiritual; they are the Lord’s, and as such they are won only through His power of grace.

Call upon the power of the Lord’s grace, then, the next time you are tempted. Learn to summon the power of God when you hear the Philistines’ trumpets sounding in the distance. Ask for His grace when the war drums are beating, and run to the the throne of His grace at the rumbling of their iron chariots. Be prepared to face the enemy in the resistance of the Lord. Deliverance will come right away if you make a habit to call on Jesus the moment you are tempted. The waters will open and swallow the foe and leave you rejoicing evermore upon the seashore. You can triumph each and every time if you will only humble yourself and admit the battle is the Lord’s. Trust Him to conquer the uncircumcised hoards and have faith that He is able to keep you from falling and renew your spirit. In your time of need, cry to your Father in confessed weakness for His perfect strength and God will win the battle for you every time.

The true Christian life is one of victory through the Hero living within us. He is our Abiding Joshua who goes forth to meet the enemies of God in our stead: “…and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Brother Paul