Divine Aplomb
We strive for moral intelligence.
If the Spirit Realm is your home, then you can afford to be exceedingly detached from this insane world. Not so much from people; with them, we seek to remain disentangled. That is, we offer warmth that is rooted in Christ without human dependence. There is a certain amount of emotional involvement, which is both a blessing and curse. The whole point of spiritual mysticism is finding ourselves so deeply engaged in God’s personal presence in our souls that we have a lot of energy left over to absorb some of the worst this world can concoct. You can’t turn off emotions; you devalue them.
They serve only as indicators, often in the most perverse and confusing ways. The mythology of controlling your emotions is an iron discipline of fools. What you can do is make sure they don’t control you. There is a long-term effort to develop a disengagement that insulates you from their restless fire and poisonous weakness. But early in your search for spiritual mastery over the flesh, emotions can help you detect things no other part of your being will tell you.
A strong emotional reaction, especially one that clearly causes a problem, is a clue to some hidden moral confusion. The stronger the reaction is, the more desperate your need to trace the wires back to the source.
Nobody has to tell you Satan loves to use those links. He can’t actually read your mind, but if there is any living entity operating within the time-space continuum capable of remembering every hint you have ever given of your weaknesses, it is Satan. He has plenty of demons and all the time in the world, because God confined him to our universe as part of the curse in Genesis. Satan can’t go home, so to speak, and he’s definitely not happy being stuck here. While his job really is a divine assignment, it’s not a pleasant one. He is God’s jailer, prosecutor, chief of police and lictor. He does not play by any human rules, but he is the source of every form of moral reasoning contrary to God’s revelation.
Satan is bound by God’s moral character as any other created being. If your desire is to walk holy before the Lord, if you pray with full sincerity for a better understanding and adherence to the moral laws of the universe, Satan loses his grip on you. He has us at birth by default, but only by our voluntary compliance does he keep us. He can only try to sucker you and distract you. That would be typically by using your emotions against you.
Satan uses people like weapons. They aren’t the enemy; Satan is. They don’t have to be consciously vile, though far too many are. Some of the most decent folks in the world are still spiritually dead and thus a potential threat. Some really fine Christian folks will let you down and have no idea why or what they did. You’ll fail yourself; recognize this as normal. This is reality. Divine cynicism is a moral gift. Don’t expect much and you’ll never be surprised by human failure.
Don’t confuse that cynicism with failure to uphold the moral imperatives, but as part of living them. It’s not that we quit trying, but we don’t need a faith in human achievement because that really doesn’t mean anything. Satan will twist everything he can get his hands on, and human achievement is one of his favorite distractions. We don’t seek the cold and logical dispassion of someone who doesn’t care. We want to develop the loving preparation for things going wrong on the human level and make room for God to work. This is what He says is the way to view things. Our confidence is in Him, not anything lesser. We confidently expect He’ll make us able to withstand all the sorrows and disappointments. Sometimes He’ll fix things up, but never assume it. He decides what brings Him glory.
When you are faced with someone else’s emotional breakdown, or rabid attack against you, withdraw if you can’t handle it. Not necessarily in the physical sense; that may not be possible. Rather, interpose the Cross as your emotional barrier to someone else’s meltdown. Nothing you face can be as bad as what Jesus faced on the Cross. This isn’t mere theology; this is moral reality. You should have already accepted your own nails and cross, so you can afford to absorb the worst crap this world can offer by refusing to own it. Your emotions will whine and complain; Adam will cry out as you nail him back to the Cross yet again. Have no mercy on your own flesh.
Don’t confuse that with neglecting your genuine physical needs as God’s steward of your human resources. Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, placing your needs with theirs in the same basket. You can afford to take some shit from people who feel whatever all tied in knots, because your resources are infinite in Heaven. However, the wisdom of God working in your convictions tells you how to carry out the resource management. It ranges from killing the fool who threatens your family to watching them with total aplomb as they rant and rave against some imaginary disappointment. Decide what God wants you to do with what He has given you and the world be damned, as it already is.
Meanwhile, your primary weapon to fight Satan is that boundless love for his poor captive slaves. Again, it’s not some emotional warmth that is the focus, though you may manifest some of that. Love is your commitment to God’s message, typically by exerting some effort on behalf of the welfare of whoever is in front of you. If their emotions have taken control of their entire physical presence, you must keep yours away from the encounter. That’s love; that’s in their best interest. You can’t rescue a drowning swimmer until they stop struggling.
That requires you invest a certain ongoing awareness in the open doors in your soul where Satan and his demons have already been coming and going. They have gained access to your turf for any number of reasons, but you are the one who evicts them. That can mean cutting off relations with certain humans who are reliable servants of Satan. If you don’t have the power to stand unmoved in the face of their onslaught, seek God’s help in simply avoiding them. Seek His divine healing power to close that wound and deny access to the demons. Make them aliens. You can’t stop them from passing through your life, but you don’t have to let them maintain residence or exercise any authority.
Don’t be a rock of offense, but a layer of slate that isn’t harmed by heavy traffic.
