Have you thought about the dangers of succumbing to the spiritual attacks you may encounter today? What precautions am I taking or am I like the Christian who said:
"I'm not really too concerned. The Lord is on my side. Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. With Christ on my side, I can have a laissez-faire attitude about the enemy and our spiritual foes. He'll protect me; I can just relax. I'm not too uptight about attacks or being under siege or somehow the enemy succeeding in bringing me down. As I said, I've got God, so I don't have to worry."
It may sound good, but the strategy will blow up in your face. Also, you should know it is not Biblical. Yes, the believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is the Constant in our lives. He arrives within simultaneously with our conversion, and He never ever leaves. That’s Biblical. And yes, we have Christ as our Saviour and our Lord and Great High Priest, and yes, God is on our side. But that is only a part of the safety equation.
Hezekiah, the 13th king of Judah, was a reformer, and under his God-fearing leadership, there was a great spiritual revival in and around Jerusalem. He led his people back to God. But now, the fierce enemy is approaching Jerusalem. The threat is real. Did he tell his people: “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. God is pleased with our spiritual progress, so we can sit back and relax. He’ll ensure nothing happens to us?”
Yes, God was on King Hezekiah’s side, but that did not give him the luxury to simply relax and use a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to the enemy. He scrambled his people to action and put them on high alert. The enemy is real.
Hezekiah assigned a large team to cut off the water flow so the enemy could not access good water. Some of the city’s walls were crumbling – so immediately, the work crews repaired the broken walls and constructed guard towers on the walls. And just in case the primary wall was not enough, he built a secondary wall around the main wall – as double insulation from the enemy. Then he put in place, military officers. After all that, he then convened a meeting and encouraged the people with words to this effect:
Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. He has only human strength, but we have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people relied on the words of King Hezekiah of Judah. 2 Chronicles 32:7-8
Hezekiah’s words greatly encouraged the people.
My responsibility as a believer has two parts:
1) Take every possible precaution to guard me against the enemy; and
2) Constantly look to the Lord for safety and protection.
New Testament writers such as James, Peter, John, Jude and Paul warn us to be on high alert at all times. Diligence. Humility. Carefulness. Seriousness. The enemy within us, our wicked ‘flesh,’ just never gives up. The enemy all around us – the world, has a war-time propaganda machine second-to-none to influence our thinking; and our arch-foe, Satan, is a seasoned commander-in-chief.
Satan has a vast arsenal of weapons and years of experience in all kinds of warfare – guerilla, hand-to-hand combat, entrapments, IEDs, as well as highly sophisticated strategies for land, sea and air attacks with incredible surveillance capabilities as well. You get the picture.
So if some areas of my spiritual walk with the Lord need repair, I must not waste any time. If some fences and walls are in danger of crumbling or are becoming slack, they need my immediate attention. Or, if one wall is not enough, I must build two walls. This is serious stuff. It’s about survival. God expects me to daily take every necessary precaution to protect myself from the enemy. (Ephesians 6) That will mean a closer walk with the Lord.
The greater the effort I put into my relationship with the Lord, the safer I will be. What actual precautions have you taken this week?
Don’t hesitate to share a thought from your personal experience in the comment section below. Or, if you would like to reach out privately, click below.
