Lately, I've been feeling uneasy. Unsure about myself. Uneasy about what I'm doing, who I am, how I am pursuing Jesus. And then I read this verse in 1 Corinthians 6:3 which says we will judge angels. Paul actually said it almost tongue-in-cheek like, "Do you not know that we will judge angels?" Through this entire romantic journey with Jesus, one of the hardest things for me to accept personally is my own goodness. Apparently the work being done within us is so valuable that we will be in a position to judge angels because we will be so made like our God Jesus in the end. Incredible. I never feel like that! Odd, right? Something is going on here. I mean, we are lovers of God. We have his Holy Spirit intimately woven within us. Our bodies are his temple. How much closer can we get to God in the physical universe without him walking on earth. And even though we are still fallen, I personally should at least struggle with the issue of being like Jesus and being inadequate. To be honest, I feel inadequate a lot of the time lately. But it's not me. And I know this.
One of the popular notions today in spiritual warfare is that when you are trying live life fully and pursue Jesus and image God's love to other people, you become a serious threat to Satan and his demons. It's true. One of the holes in my armor is for Satan to tell me, "Joel, you've got it all wrong. You don't know God. You are self-serving and stupid. And frankly, just disgusting." And a good chunk of the time I can convince myself that it is me saying that to myself. How many times have we struggled with stuff like this though? We can wake up in God's arms but an hour later we can feel like we are a maggot and have no idea why Jesus would desire us. Why does this happen? We are at war and we got hit.
Spiritual warfare. It can truly be one of the oddest concepts I think in the story. In the physical universe anyways. I'm a hard scientist. If someone were to tell me, "Humans are at war with other beings from another dimension." Well, I'd beef up my listening to UFO talk radio and watching History Channel specials. But it's true. We really are at war. But the war is so odd in that the bullets used are daggers pointed at our hearts. The enemy is composed of invisible spiritual entities that hate us and want to seduce us away from God so that we end up in hell. This war and how Satan and his demons attack is in a lot of real world ways, on a daily basis, likened to the beauty/sex contest Esther was in when vying for the queenship of Persia with King Xerxes. The sad thing is, we settle. The intimacy offered to us by God is a million times more joyful, more wonderful, more pleasurable than anything offered by the world. It comes down to who we really desire to pursue. Do we throw our chips into the pile for our Invisible Lover, or do we walk away with the door prize, a downgraded version of something in the world. We have this Lover, this God, who desires us, wants us, dreams of us, and if we are with him, it makes him leap for joy. Being with him makes him rejoice as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride (Isaiah 62:5)
The two most effective things I do for spiritual warfare are:
1. Worshipping Jesus. Who really cares about Satan walking around trying to devour us when we are wrapped around our God, passionately worshipping him? We need ecstasy and delight in Jesus, and when we have that with him our troubles have a way of just disappearing. Things get put in order and we are ourselves again. We always find ourselves when we are entangled with Jesus. And most of the time, it only happens if I get away from my daily activities, close my door to my room, and worship him in secret. God hides himself to be found, he desires us to pursue him. And when we do, he will respond in love to us. When we are under spiritual attack, which is an attack to our hearts, our minds, our souls, or our bodies, we need God's touch, his embrace, his kisses, him whispering how much he loves us in our ears. We need to be oh so near to him. We need to be in the embrace of the Holy Spirit and be able to cry out inside, "My Lover is mine and I am his!" When we are under attack, we are being enticed out of the embrace of Jesus into foreign and terrible things. Even if it's nothing more then just our attention being paid to something bland and tasteless, we must protect our hearts. We need an adventure in romance with our God. We need to runaway with him for a time. "Come, my Lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages." (Song of Songs 7:11. NIV)
2. Protect you heart. How important is this one? If we feel like our hearts will be made sad, or upset by a song, or a movie or show, turn it off. Or if being around a friend that we should only be around on strong days, tell them you've got some business to take care of and have to leave early. Whatever it takes, protect your heart. It's too valuable for this world and should only be in the hands of Jesus and your husband or wife if you are married.
We have a wonderful life with Jesus. Satan and his demons are already doomed to hell forever. We are the Prince's beloved and we should look at Satan's emotional arrows with disdain. We are going to our castle with our Beloved and leaving evil behind forever.
"The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create." Isaiah 65:17-18
"Take me away with you-let us hurry!" Song of Songs 1:4
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