Our warfare is not as their warfare.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the Accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” (Revelation 12:10-11 NET)
The single greatest difference between us and all those who count us as enemies is that we don’t mind dying. Their ultimate victory is no defeat for us.
Try to understand how this applies to the oppressive human governments, as well. The US government rules by threats of violence and taking away all the comforts of our human existence. When we commit ourselves to giving up those things in the first place, there is nothing left for them to use against us.
The primary battlefield, as defined in Ephesians 6:10ff, is our very own souls. We fight to expel the influence and power of demonic authorities over our decisions and actions in this world. Human failure in pursuing the commands of our Lord’s Laws is expected; He programmed failure into it. Do you not understand the meaning of that vast system of ritual sacrifice? It warns us our fleshly existence cannot be perfected, that even with full sincerity we cannot perform.
The sole objective is overcoming our hostile commitments. Holiness is measured as a desire in the heart. In this day and time it is by no means far-fetched to imagine evil human forces capable of using technology to compel physical and even intellectual compliance to their designs. But they cannot create a sincere commitment of the soul. The human will is beyond their reach, especially when it is wired into the Spirit Realm.
We struggle to create an existence that breathes life into God’s revelation. The simplest explanation is a heartfelt commitment to His Laws as Jesus taught them. Not so much the Laws themselves, but the Laws as a manifestation of God’s personal desires for us. So we study those Laws, trying our best to abstract for our individual selves what is required. You bring Jesus to life as He would be had He been born in your place.
Our Lord promised He would use us in that state to touch whomever He decides to touch. We are direct participants, though how He uses us in bringing to birth His Spirit in other people is utterly incomprehensible to a human mind. All we need to know is that’s how He wants us to proceed for His purposes.
Merely the desire for a fresh incarnation of God’s Spirit is all the victory we need.
