I love the Old Testament story of Obed-Edom. King David and his men were bringing the Ark of God back to Jerusalem to stay. One of David's men grabbed the Ark because the oxen carrying it had stumbled, which was forbidden, and he died there. In David's fear and anger, he took the Ark to the house of Obed-Edom instead of taking it down to Jerusalem.
"And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that he had."
1 Chronicles 13:14
I often think about the Ark actually sitting in the home of Obed-Edom. You can bet that they did not just store it in the garage or the shed out back. This represented the very presence of God to His people. It, no doubt, became the centerpiece of the home, being placed in the center of the main room in the home. I can imagine that all furniture was removed from the room so that nothing would clutter the view of the Ark.
Imagine the mood of the home; what a holy atmosphere must have been created by the presence of the Ark. I can picture Obed-Edom's children passing by and pausing, becoming entranced by the sheer beauty of the Ark, laden in gold, and thinking about all the stories they had heard about this great and powerful God that had done great works for His people. Yet, even in the reverent awe of what was in their home, I bet Obed-Edom and his family laughed more and complained less. What a magical anticipation must have been present!
"And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that he had."
We all now have the opportunity to have something greater than the Ark in our home. The Ark was just a representation of God, and could be in only one place at one time. But now we have the promised Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ that dwells richly in our hearts. However, it seems that because of the availability of the love of God to ALL people, we have not been faithful stuards of this gift, and have dulled the reality of "God with us". Sometimes we have trouble keeping something sacred when it is available to all.
The story of Obed-Edom is a great picture of a family recognizing the presence of the Lord in their home, making room for Him, making Him the centerpiece of all that they have. In this Christmas season, my wife and I are praying about how to create this type of atmosphere for our family and 4-month old son, Sam. We love the magical feeling that surrounds the story of Santa Clause coming to bless children for Christmas. But we want to create the same atmosphere, or much greater, for Jesus.
We aren't sure what we'll do yet, but we have agreed that Sam will feed off of our own excitement for the season. John Piper and his ministry, Desiring God, have an Advent ebook that I've been reading. On day 1 it says, "Bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of the King’s arrival visible for the children." It is our own excitement in the stories that we tell about Santa Clause that creates this excitement for our children. The good news is that we do not have to make up anything about Jesus Christ, but only put our mind, spirit and Scripture to work to make His majesty known first in our own hearts so that it will be a convincing reality to us when we tell of Him to others.
I love the lyric in the famous Christmas carol, Joy to the World, that says "let every heart prepare Him room". That is our hope for our family; that we would intentionally prepare room for the King of kings to inhabit our home and our hearts.
Please comment on any ideas that you have that create the magical anticipation of Santa, but for Jesus during Christmas time. Thanks.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
My Crown
"An excellent wife is the crown of her husband..." Proverbs 12:4
Over the past months, I have grown increasingly prideful in my role as the head of my home. It has led to much grief and condemnation for my wife, Rachel. My arrogance has come at a pretty bad time, as we have a 3-month old, studly boy, Sam. So in the midst of feeding the boy with her own body, sleepless nights, hormones-a-ragin', etc., Rachel has had an arrogant husband who thought she should do more so that he could be seen by outsiders as someone who governs his home well... What a tool.
Notice that all the scriptures addressing the husband's headship and the wife's submission are, in fact, directed to the wife. To the husband, the Lord says things like this, "love, lay down your life, wash with the water of the Word, present blameless, cherish, nourish, live with in understanding, give honor, do not be harsh." He never says, "Husbands, be the head of your home."
This is the same principle as when Jesus corrected his disciples saying, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20). Authority that rejoices in its own authority cannot understand grace, because grace is about Jesus, not me and what I can do.
If I'm honest, I do not remember many times when good fruit came from exerting myself as the head of the home. But when my effort is focused on laying my life down for my wife, there is life in my home. The challenge for men to be leaders is good and Biblical. But without the understanding of Christ's sacrificial love, dominant men belittle and devalue their wives, and men who are more passive in nature act out resentfully under the weight of trying to be a dynamic leader. Both types bring condemnation on their homes. But my wife is as valuable in the sight of the Lord as I am, and at times it seems even more so.
The Word is clear that we will be rewarded for how we live our life here. None of us are deserving of God's grace, but I do not know of anyone more deserving of the Lord's great inheritance than a mother. What I have seen my wife do in the past 3 months has proven the strength and worth of a woman of God. I simply could not do it.
And even more so to the mothers who have not born children (yes, you are a mother): Isaiah 54:1 says "'For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,' says the LORD." I have no idea what that means, other than your reward in eternity will be unfathomable. The Lord sees you and the Lord values you. Great is your inheritance! I encourage all women to read Isaiah 54 and make it your own. I don't care if you're 75, keep praying, keep hoping. Sarah was like 90 when Isaac was born. Can you imagine!
Look at the list of those born to barren women: Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (3 generations in a row), Samuel, Samson, John the Baptist. And even Jesus Christ was born to a woman who had never had sex. This presents a problem in the natural, eh? But I love the description of how the Lord gave Sarah a son:
"The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as He had promised" (Gen 21:1). And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me”(Gen 21:6). What a picture of pure joy. With the Lord there is always hope, always mercy. Blessings to you who hope in Him.
And to my wife, Rachel:
I've never seen such strength as I did in you on the day that Samuel was born - 22hrs, no drugs, no doctors. And I've never seen such a noble and righteous cause as the the one the Lord has given you - to raise up a young man of strength in God, daily, hourly, without a break at all. I cannot wait to see your reward in heaven (can I come over?), not to mention the tremendous fruits that will come from your labors here on earth. The way you mother my son is supernatural and perfect. You are an inspiration to me in wisdom... always. I fight and strive every day to seek the Lord and hear His voice, yet you seem to know Him and hear Him without effort. In fact, to steal a line from our old Pastor Brady, the voice of the Lord to me more often than not sounds like yours.
No verse says more about what you are to me than the one at the top of the page - you are my crown. Yes, I am the head of the home, but you make me shine. You are the accent of my kingdom, crowning me with beauty and dignity. When people think of me, they see you, and any public respect I may have is greatly attributed to that fact. The Lord has anointed you to speak to the depths of the hearts of women and men alike. You are supernatually unreligous. What a glorious prize you are. Yes, you are a "trophy wife", and I'll parade you around any day (you know you love it). Truly I have received favor from the Lord. You are beyond beautiful. I still laugh when I remember the first year of our relationship when I'd think, "Well, this is nice, but has to end soon - she's too hot for me and she knows it." You did too! I love the dresses you pick out.
Please checkout Rachel's blog here: Uncovering Mercy
Over the past months, I have grown increasingly prideful in my role as the head of my home. It has led to much grief and condemnation for my wife, Rachel. My arrogance has come at a pretty bad time, as we have a 3-month old, studly boy, Sam. So in the midst of feeding the boy with her own body, sleepless nights, hormones-a-ragin', etc., Rachel has had an arrogant husband who thought she should do more so that he could be seen by outsiders as someone who governs his home well... What a tool.
Notice that all the scriptures addressing the husband's headship and the wife's submission are, in fact, directed to the wife. To the husband, the Lord says things like this, "love, lay down your life, wash with the water of the Word, present blameless, cherish, nourish, live with in understanding, give honor, do not be harsh." He never says, "Husbands, be the head of your home."
This is the same principle as when Jesus corrected his disciples saying, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20). Authority that rejoices in its own authority cannot understand grace, because grace is about Jesus, not me and what I can do.
If I'm honest, I do not remember many times when good fruit came from exerting myself as the head of the home. But when my effort is focused on laying my life down for my wife, there is life in my home. The challenge for men to be leaders is good and Biblical. But without the understanding of Christ's sacrificial love, dominant men belittle and devalue their wives, and men who are more passive in nature act out resentfully under the weight of trying to be a dynamic leader. Both types bring condemnation on their homes. But my wife is as valuable in the sight of the Lord as I am, and at times it seems even more so.
The Word is clear that we will be rewarded for how we live our life here. None of us are deserving of God's grace, but I do not know of anyone more deserving of the Lord's great inheritance than a mother. What I have seen my wife do in the past 3 months has proven the strength and worth of a woman of God. I simply could not do it.
And even more so to the mothers who have not born children (yes, you are a mother): Isaiah 54:1 says "'For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,' says the LORD." I have no idea what that means, other than your reward in eternity will be unfathomable. The Lord sees you and the Lord values you. Great is your inheritance! I encourage all women to read Isaiah 54 and make it your own. I don't care if you're 75, keep praying, keep hoping. Sarah was like 90 when Isaac was born. Can you imagine!
Look at the list of those born to barren women: Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (3 generations in a row), Samuel, Samson, John the Baptist. And even Jesus Christ was born to a woman who had never had sex. This presents a problem in the natural, eh? But I love the description of how the Lord gave Sarah a son:
"The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as He had promised" (Gen 21:1). And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me”(Gen 21:6). What a picture of pure joy. With the Lord there is always hope, always mercy. Blessings to you who hope in Him.
And to my wife, Rachel:
I've never seen such strength as I did in you on the day that Samuel was born - 22hrs, no drugs, no doctors. And I've never seen such a noble and righteous cause as the the one the Lord has given you - to raise up a young man of strength in God, daily, hourly, without a break at all. I cannot wait to see your reward in heaven (can I come over?), not to mention the tremendous fruits that will come from your labors here on earth. The way you mother my son is supernatural and perfect. You are an inspiration to me in wisdom... always. I fight and strive every day to seek the Lord and hear His voice, yet you seem to know Him and hear Him without effort. In fact, to steal a line from our old Pastor Brady, the voice of the Lord to me more often than not sounds like yours.
No verse says more about what you are to me than the one at the top of the page - you are my crown. Yes, I am the head of the home, but you make me shine. You are the accent of my kingdom, crowning me with beauty and dignity. When people think of me, they see you, and any public respect I may have is greatly attributed to that fact. The Lord has anointed you to speak to the depths of the hearts of women and men alike. You are supernatually unreligous. What a glorious prize you are. Yes, you are a "trophy wife", and I'll parade you around any day (you know you love it). Truly I have received favor from the Lord. You are beyond beautiful. I still laugh when I remember the first year of our relationship when I'd think, "Well, this is nice, but has to end soon - she's too hot for me and she knows it." You did too! I love the dresses you pick out.
Please checkout Rachel's blog here: Uncovering Mercy
Friday, November 2, 2012
Fresh Air
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17
Recently, I've been very convicted of a spirit of condemnation. It first came to me in the way of desiring my family to look and act a certain way so that we could be seen as "godly" by others. In this, I greatly condemned myself and also my family, pressuring my wife to be a certain way. I was not "washing her with the water of the word", but in reality calling her unclean by demanding that she live up to my standards. I was condemning her.
Since then, the Lord has opened my eyes, and I have repented before Him and my wife. From there, the Lord showed me this verse:
"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." Exodus 25:8
One of the definitions for sanctuary is "immunity from arrest". Which to me means no condemnation - though a crime may have been committed, immunity from arrest is granted; i.e. grace. The Lord showed my wife and I that He wanted our home to be a place where hurting people can come and be given "immunity from arrest" and allowed to heal. We want our family to be a place where no topic is off limits and no imperfection will be treated as leprosy. We will not condemn one another, but will always bring our conversations and imperfections to submission under the Lord.
Prior to this eye-opener, I was very hard folks who complained, especially Rachel, my wife. I hated complaining, and still do. But I was condemning in my response, not giving a place for healing and grace. Thus, the wounds of my family were not being allowed to air out.
I work in medical design and construction. We design and build hospital rooms. The requirements in America call for us to completely seal every room, so that it is air tight. The thought is that this will prevent infection and diseases from spreading. "Just seal it up," is the idea. "Put a band-aid on it so nobody can see what's in there".
We also do mission work on hospitals in Africa. The hospital rooms in Africa are usually large rooms with lots of beds in them. People with all different ailments and diseases are in one room together. Surrounding the room is usually lots of open windows. Most Americans would shutter at the sight. But infection in these open air hospitals is way less of a problem than in our zip-locked "germ-safe" rooms. The fresh circulating air in the African hospitals actually brings healing.
I experience the same effect with my black lab's ears - when I tie them up to let fresh air in, his ear infections heal. If I do not do that, medications really do not help. Man-made cleanliness covers up, while God's fresh air brings healing.
This vision for my family was very freeing for both me and my wife; "like a breath of fresh air". God is Spirit. The word spirit is also translated as breath or wind. The realization for me is that my family is going to have hurts and wounds. I'm ok with that now. This is not to allow sin, but to apply the grace of God that brings about repentence and healing. In that, there is also discipline and consequence, but all is under submission to the Lord.
My home is not going to be a man-made, self-righteous place where we just put a band-aid over a wound, preventing the flow of fresh air. We will be a sanctuary where we bring our hurts and iniquities to the Throne of Grace, allowing the free-flowing Spirit of God to breathe fresh air on our imperfections, so that we will be able to healthily minister; first to one another, and secondly to others that the Lord puts in our path.
"...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
Recently, I've been very convicted of a spirit of condemnation. It first came to me in the way of desiring my family to look and act a certain way so that we could be seen as "godly" by others. In this, I greatly condemned myself and also my family, pressuring my wife to be a certain way. I was not "washing her with the water of the word", but in reality calling her unclean by demanding that she live up to my standards. I was condemning her.
Since then, the Lord has opened my eyes, and I have repented before Him and my wife. From there, the Lord showed me this verse:
"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." Exodus 25:8
One of the definitions for sanctuary is "immunity from arrest". Which to me means no condemnation - though a crime may have been committed, immunity from arrest is granted; i.e. grace. The Lord showed my wife and I that He wanted our home to be a place where hurting people can come and be given "immunity from arrest" and allowed to heal. We want our family to be a place where no topic is off limits and no imperfection will be treated as leprosy. We will not condemn one another, but will always bring our conversations and imperfections to submission under the Lord.
Prior to this eye-opener, I was very hard folks who complained, especially Rachel, my wife. I hated complaining, and still do. But I was condemning in my response, not giving a place for healing and grace. Thus, the wounds of my family were not being allowed to air out.
I work in medical design and construction. We design and build hospital rooms. The requirements in America call for us to completely seal every room, so that it is air tight. The thought is that this will prevent infection and diseases from spreading. "Just seal it up," is the idea. "Put a band-aid on it so nobody can see what's in there".
We also do mission work on hospitals in Africa. The hospital rooms in Africa are usually large rooms with lots of beds in them. People with all different ailments and diseases are in one room together. Surrounding the room is usually lots of open windows. Most Americans would shutter at the sight. But infection in these open air hospitals is way less of a problem than in our zip-locked "germ-safe" rooms. The fresh circulating air in the African hospitals actually brings healing.
I experience the same effect with my black lab's ears - when I tie them up to let fresh air in, his ear infections heal. If I do not do that, medications really do not help. Man-made cleanliness covers up, while God's fresh air brings healing.
This vision for my family was very freeing for both me and my wife; "like a breath of fresh air". God is Spirit. The word spirit is also translated as breath or wind. The realization for me is that my family is going to have hurts and wounds. I'm ok with that now. This is not to allow sin, but to apply the grace of God that brings about repentence and healing. In that, there is also discipline and consequence, but all is under submission to the Lord.
My home is not going to be a man-made, self-righteous place where we just put a band-aid over a wound, preventing the flow of fresh air. We will be a sanctuary where we bring our hurts and iniquities to the Throne of Grace, allowing the free-flowing Spirit of God to breathe fresh air on our imperfections, so that we will be able to healthily minister; first to one another, and secondly to others that the Lord puts in our path.
"...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Thinking on the Unthinkable
I think the reason for much of our lack of faith comes from 2 things:
1. We do not think often on the greatness and infiniteness of God. No attribute that He possesses has limitation. All created things flow from and exist in Him. He is called the Great I Am, and everything else is within Him. He is boundless, limitless, and infinite.
Paul speaks of God in this way: God..."who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see..." (1 Timothy 6:16). The book of Job tells of our absolute dependency on this infinite God: "If He should set His heart to it and gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust." (Job 34:14-15)
There are countless other Scriptures and examples of the infiniteness of God our Father and our utter dependence on Him. The point is, we need to think on the infiniteness of Him and our complete dependence on Him. If we were only to know the truth of the above verse in Job, that your being is wrapped up in His life-giving breath, perhaps we would not worry as much about our own lives. He holds us. And in this infinite Being of God is His love for us.
2. When we think about the Father, we often deceive ourselves by thinking that we can understand Him. My first point, thinking on the infiniteness of God, is not so that we may grasp it, but so that we may understand more and more that the mind cannot grasp it. And as we realize this, coupled with the the revelation of His infinite love for His children, we may be able to strengthen our faith in Him.
Novatian wrote, "...all mental effort is feeble. For God is greater than the mind... He is greater than all language, and no statement can express Him." We cannot comprehend Him. A created thing cannot overtake its Creator in any way. So why think on it? To learn our complete desperation and reliance on our great Heavenly Father. When we fill our minds with the infiniteness of God, we may have faith when He says, "My ways are not your ways." Then we may respond, "Yes, Lord, I will fix my trust in You, the great Unthinkable God."
1. We do not think often on the greatness and infiniteness of God. No attribute that He possesses has limitation. All created things flow from and exist in Him. He is called the Great I Am, and everything else is within Him. He is boundless, limitless, and infinite.
Paul speaks of God in this way: God..."who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see..." (1 Timothy 6:16). The book of Job tells of our absolute dependency on this infinite God: "If He should set His heart to it and gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust." (Job 34:14-15)
There are countless other Scriptures and examples of the infiniteness of God our Father and our utter dependence on Him. The point is, we need to think on the infiniteness of Him and our complete dependence on Him. If we were only to know the truth of the above verse in Job, that your being is wrapped up in His life-giving breath, perhaps we would not worry as much about our own lives. He holds us. And in this infinite Being of God is His love for us.
2. When we think about the Father, we often deceive ourselves by thinking that we can understand Him. My first point, thinking on the infiniteness of God, is not so that we may grasp it, but so that we may understand more and more that the mind cannot grasp it. And as we realize this, coupled with the the revelation of His infinite love for His children, we may be able to strengthen our faith in Him.
Novatian wrote, "...all mental effort is feeble. For God is greater than the mind... He is greater than all language, and no statement can express Him." We cannot comprehend Him. A created thing cannot overtake its Creator in any way. So why think on it? To learn our complete desperation and reliance on our great Heavenly Father. When we fill our minds with the infiniteness of God, we may have faith when He says, "My ways are not your ways." Then we may respond, "Yes, Lord, I will fix my trust in You, the great Unthinkable God."
Sunday, December 4, 2011
The Word
I looked up all the Greek translations of the main words in John 1:1-5 and expanded it a little, using the definitions. I like the last verse the best. Here is what it looks like:
At the beginning of all things was the Word uttered by a living Voice. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was present with God at the origin of all created things.
Every thing received being through the Word of God, and apart from Him no thing that existed came into existence.
In Him was life, and this life manifested itself in men through light.
And this light is made evident to the darkness by men, and the darkness did not take it by force, nor understand it, nor extinguish it.
At the beginning of all things was the Word uttered by a living Voice. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was present with God at the origin of all created things.
Every thing received being through the Word of God, and apart from Him no thing that existed came into existence.
In Him was life, and this life manifested itself in men through light.
And this light is made evident to the darkness by men, and the darkness did not take it by force, nor understand it, nor extinguish it.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
A Stilled Soul
"But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." Psalm 131:2
A strange way to describe yourself, eh? I couldn't help but think about this verse for a while, wondering what it really meant. The definition for weaned is: Accustom (someone) to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond. At this point in a child's life, a child no longer needs his mothers milk and is usually able to simply say, "I'm hungry," rather than cryin' and fussin' until his momma feeds him. A weaned child is no longer concerned or worried that he will be fed - he knows and trusts his mother to give him food - but he is satisfied by being with her.
I think the point that David is making here is that he no longer troubles himself with the elemental needs of life, such as food, but his soul is free from worry because of the trust he has that His God will provide. He has been weaned off of the cryin' and fussin' for milk. His soul is still and is able to find the true joy that comes from the Presence of the Lord.
I'm one of many Christians who has had trouble moving from the infant stage of Christian life mentioned in Hebrews 5:12. But I've had glimpses of how wonderful it can be once we move past that to fully know and trust our Lord for our needs, and be stilled and satisfied by the joy of His Presence. He is Emmanuel - God with us.
A strange way to describe yourself, eh? I couldn't help but think about this verse for a while, wondering what it really meant. The definition for weaned is: Accustom (someone) to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond. At this point in a child's life, a child no longer needs his mothers milk and is usually able to simply say, "I'm hungry," rather than cryin' and fussin' until his momma feeds him. A weaned child is no longer concerned or worried that he will be fed - he knows and trusts his mother to give him food - but he is satisfied by being with her.
I think the point that David is making here is that he no longer troubles himself with the elemental needs of life, such as food, but his soul is free from worry because of the trust he has that His God will provide. He has been weaned off of the cryin' and fussin' for milk. His soul is still and is able to find the true joy that comes from the Presence of the Lord.
I'm one of many Christians who has had trouble moving from the infant stage of Christian life mentioned in Hebrews 5:12. But I've had glimpses of how wonderful it can be once we move past that to fully know and trust our Lord for our needs, and be stilled and satisfied by the joy of His Presence. He is Emmanuel - God with us.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Stand Your Ground
"...give no opportunity to the devil." Ephesians4:27
The 2nd chapter of Ephesians explains our seat with Christ. We are seated, present tense, in the heavens with Christ. Obviously, this is not our physical bodies, but our spirit. This is why Paul always directs us to live by the Spirit and not the flesh; because it's much better to acknowledge our position in Christ than our position in this world.
The enemy's attacks are in attempt to get us to relinquish our position with Christ in the heavenlies. He attacks our flesh to get us to respond in the same way; the flesh. He knows that if we will respond on his terms, we give up our heavenly positioning to fight on his terms, where we have no power over him.
We have to be watchful, giving him no opportunity in which to catch us off our post. Often it is a storm aimed to blow us physically off our post. Other times there are distractions and curiosities that lure us away, seemingly harmless, but they cause us to relax our watch.
Then there is the secretive attack on reason when the enemy uses "good sense" to reduce our perspective back to earth and dethrone the Almighty God in our minds. This is a most covert attack, and is often the most effective. Be careful how much thought you give to reason. Reason cannot accept the dead risen to life.
In all these things, the natural response is that of the flesh: fear, worry, sickness, stress, arguments and dissensions. Whenever we respond in the flesh, our post is abandoned, giving opportunity to the devil to take yielded ground. He cannot take ground unless he is offered it by our flesh. Resist him and he will flee from you. Stand your watch, using the Sword of the Spirit as your weapon.
"So I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)
The 2nd chapter of Ephesians explains our seat with Christ. We are seated, present tense, in the heavens with Christ. Obviously, this is not our physical bodies, but our spirit. This is why Paul always directs us to live by the Spirit and not the flesh; because it's much better to acknowledge our position in Christ than our position in this world.
The enemy's attacks are in attempt to get us to relinquish our position with Christ in the heavenlies. He attacks our flesh to get us to respond in the same way; the flesh. He knows that if we will respond on his terms, we give up our heavenly positioning to fight on his terms, where we have no power over him.
We have to be watchful, giving him no opportunity in which to catch us off our post. Often it is a storm aimed to blow us physically off our post. Other times there are distractions and curiosities that lure us away, seemingly harmless, but they cause us to relax our watch.
Then there is the secretive attack on reason when the enemy uses "good sense" to reduce our perspective back to earth and dethrone the Almighty God in our minds. This is a most covert attack, and is often the most effective. Be careful how much thought you give to reason. Reason cannot accept the dead risen to life.
In all these things, the natural response is that of the flesh: fear, worry, sickness, stress, arguments and dissensions. Whenever we respond in the flesh, our post is abandoned, giving opportunity to the devil to take yielded ground. He cannot take ground unless he is offered it by our flesh. Resist him and he will flee from you. Stand your watch, using the Sword of the Spirit as your weapon.
"So I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)
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