I was thinking of Jesus.
You know the devil got it seriously wrong because he thought that if he killed Jesus then the purpose of God, the redemption and reconciliation of the world, would be destroyed. His thinking was if I kill the Son of God then nothing stands in my way of bringing total destruction to the creation created in the image of God.
I think he got a massive shock one day when Jesus made a statement of truth that shocked him. Jesus was having a conversation with the Pharisees and He says to them, "I have authority to lay it (His life) down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." [John 10: 18]
As Jesus made that statement I believe the enemy took a gasp.
From then on the enemy's strategy changed and he began trying to divert Jesus from the path before Him. Consider Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He is in a torment and His sweat is as great drops of blood falling. Can we really enter in to what were His thoughts and feelings as He considered all before Him? We cannot! Man would do their worst with the whip and the word, they would heap their abuse and mockery upon Him and nail Him on a cross and when they had done their worst His Father would turn His back on Him as our sin, total and complete, was laid upon Him. Can we enter into that? No. Man turned their back on God, and in response God turned His back on His Son as He bore our sins in His own body on our account.
If you have watched the Mel Gibson film, 'The Passion of the Christ', you will see the garden scene when the serpent comes and slithers his deception and diversion around the feet of Jesus. The Bible tells us that angels were sent to come and minister to Jesus as He says to His Father, "If it is possible Father let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done.' [Matthew 26: 39]
In the movie we see His victory aptly displayed as Jesus raises His foot and crushes the head of the enemy! It is a powerful image!
Our direction has recently been directed toward the story of the children of Israel, and Joshua, gathered outside the shut up walls of Jericho in Joshua 6. The encouragement of the preachers was to not give up on six. If the children of Israel had stopped on six the walls would never have come down.
I have been in ministry for thirteen years. How many times have I thought to give up? Thousands! Almost daily! Now I do not present myself as a model for there are many better. Think of Paul who was beaten, and stoned, and starved, and shipwrecked and yet pressed on. Think of Jesus who had the most difficult path before Him but said 'not my will, but Your will be done.'
Recently, I was challenged during a discussion about the constant battering of doubt that we experience in our calls and I just felt that it was important to declare that I believe, and that I don't really know what else to do. I suppose if God had given me an immense career in some field then my purpose could be devoted to and engulfed by the pursuit of that, but I don't have that path. All I have is a call that I received on a hot day in the back of a ute in Cambodia. All I have is the promise of God through many people who have declared the plan of God over my life to bring Grace to the nations. All I have is a love of sharing the gospel and seeing the Lord move by His Spirit in bringing many to Himself. All I have is His revelation of Himself through His Spirit. All I have is in-dwelling Life. All I have is His strengthening, His guidance, His blessing.
I don't have anything else so there is nothing else to say except 'I believe' and to start on one more circuit of the high wall that seemingly stands between me and the breakthrough God has declared. I do hear His voice that says to me, "Who do you think I am?" and as that resounds in my spirit I can do nothing else but say 'I believe'.
I believe you Lord when You say, as you did to Joshua, and the children of Israel, all those years ago...
"See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors..."Lord, I don't 'see' often but I choose to believe.
Now back to the beginning of this post.
'The devil doesn't know what to do with somebody who won't give up'.
Why is that? I believe it is because of Colossians 2: 12.
It says there...
'...you were also raised with Him...'The devil made a serious miscalculation when he thought he could kill God's purpose by killing His Son, and the devil has made a serious miscalculation when he thinks he can kill the purpose of God by killing off your call because just as Jesus had the power to rise again He has bestowed that same life on us, the life of the Spirit. We live because He lives. It is in that Life that we won't give up.
As we receive His life we live, and by His Spirit we can say, 'I believe, I will not give up.'
Let me finish with this. I love this verse.
'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY.' [2 Corinthians 3: 17]
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