Once we make the decision to follow the Lord Jesus and give our lives to him, we are never the same. The Holy Spirit regenerates our human spirit and comes to live within us. Jesus Christ teaches us in John 16:13 that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. After we receive the salvation Christ offers, we are no longer guiding ourselves. We have a destiny in Christ, and only the Spirit can lead, guide, and direct us to it. Our responsibility is to do as God commands in Proverbs 3:5-6: we’re to trust Him with our whole heart, stop leaning on our own understanding, and instead, we’re to seek God’s Will in everything we do. When we order our lives in this way, our Heavenly Father will show us the path that leads to His purpose, plan, and blessings.
The pace of life moves very quickly and unpredictably, but it should never outpace the Christian. In Hebrews 12:1 (NLT), God commands us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” If we do this, we can run our race with a level of endurance that always places us ahead. The process of stripping off every weight of sin is what allows us to continually grow in Christ, but let’s be honest, this process can be very challenging. It means we have to change by releasing the habits, attitudes, and thought patterns that keep our blessings blocked. We then must replace those heavies with more of the love of Christ.
Although most believers grasp this on a basic level, we take our sweet time when it comes to releasing the things that hold us back and embracing the things that propel us forward. Many of us adopt a slower pace than required, and when life begins to outpace us—well, “Houston, we have a problem.”
Spiritually, this equates to a place in our hearts and minds where darkness is still calling the shots. We’re not manifesting fruit, but instead, we’re leaving an opening for a demonic attack. We would be wise not to underestimate this, because the enemy shows no mercy, and he will repeatedly test our vulnerabilities. The Good News is that God has not left us defenseless against the enemy’s attacks. James 4:7 (NLT) says “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we choose the peace of God and deny our flesh, we are truly humbling ourselves before Him. What this mindset shows is “God not my will but Yours.”
Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) tells us, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things.” Operating in the Spirit’s fruit gives us confidence that we are pleasing God. And the enemy has no entrance into our lives when we keep pace with the Spirit, because we’re consistently manifesting these fruit in our daily lives. This is not a one-and-done type of deal. Wherever we’re losing pace, that thing that’s causing us to move at a snail’s pace must be totally kicked to the curb. We can’t keep grabbing for it like a safety net. Instead, God’s love has to be the thing we grab.
If we are attentive to the Spirit, He will warn us about the things that are hindering our growth. A sisterfriend experienced this in a dream, where she was shown that she wasn’t manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in an area of her life. This was holding her back in other areas as well. She had a ‘thorn in her flesh’ at her job, a person that was causing her a lot of stress. God doesn’t want us to be anyone’s footstool, but we need to remember that sometimes a thorn is actually our own lack of humility staring back at us. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but swallow it we must if spiritual growth—and the blessings that come with it—are truly our goal.
Not only must we have faith to outsmart the enemy and keep pace with the level of blessings and growth we’re destined to achieve, but we must have the humility to surrender our will for God’s Will. This is the key to pleasing God. The endurance He requires means that we must be rooted in the Spirit’s fruit. It’s the foundation that prepares us for the next level of blessings and ensures that we will remain anchored in Christ, no matter how the enemy tries to test us. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Tested by the Enemy”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.