But I hasten to a blessed “negative-positive” that provides help in our dilemma. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Notice that He is Lord OF HOSTS: if there are hosts against us, there are hosts on our side. When the King of Syria sent an army to seize Elisha, the prophet observed another host. “Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” No wonder he assured his servant, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” If we are beset by an Unseen Foe, we have also an Unseen Friend. Great is our Adversary but greater is our Ally. The battle is the Lord’s and He will not save us by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horsemen, but by His Spirit. If we are beset by invisible powers, thank God If there are evil angels, there are also good angels. The Bible is full of them. They ministered to our Lord at His temptation and in Gethsemane. He could have summoned legions of them to His aid (Matt. 26:53). Sometime ago I saw a sign over an automobile service center which was operated by a man named Angel. It read simply “Angel Service.” I laughed and said to myself, “I’ve been enjoying angel service all these years for ‘Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to min ister to them who shall be heirs of salvation’?” Yes, we are blessed with an invincible pres ence. It is a spiritual conflict and we win not by might nor by power but by His Spirit. Our weap ons are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (II Cor. 10:4). Before the battle of Jericho, Joshua met a man with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua asked him, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” and he said, “Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” Joshua was under the blood and beset by foes both seen and unseen. How fitting that before his first major battle he should have a meeting with the Invincible Presence! Do not dare to fight your Jericho without the Man with the Drawn Sword. The conquest of the hosts that are against you depends upon the Captain of the hosts that are for you. My mother’s last message to me was, “Keep up the good fight for God is with you . . . and if God be for us, who can be against us?” In that assur ance, I would fight the good fight of faith, Bought With An Infinite Price, Beset By Invisible Powers but Blessed With An Invincible Presence. E WE ARE BLESSED W ITH A \ INVINCIBLE PRESENCE “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The Son has promised to be with us all the days, even unto the consummation of the age. The blessed Holy Spirit is now our Paraclete, called alongside to help.
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). WE ARE BESET BY INV ISIBLE POWERS We are not up against mere flesh and blood. The devil is the prince of the power of the air. While there is but one devil, there are many de mons and he is assisted by legions of wicked spirits and evil angels. Never mind these wiseacres who talk of “outmoded ideas from ancient angelology and demonology.” Nor should we turn this matter over to the psychiatrists. Any Christian who gets down to business in spiritual warfare soon learns that he is up against an unseen world of dark and sinister powers. Our papers are filled with accounts of crime by men and women and, alas, young peo ple that can be explained only by demon-posses sion. Hospitals and insane asylums try to patch up the wreckage wrought by invisible powers of dark ness. Missionaries can write volumes on the subject from actual experience. Our Lord contended with that world all the days of His flesh and delivered men and women from it. Satan and his legions are out to disable the body, deceive the mind and discourage the spirit. Sometimes he overthrows like a roaring lion. Oth ers he leads astray as an angel of light. Still others, who successfully resist both lion and angel, are beset by the Accuser. Do you remember Christian’s plight in Bunyan’s immortal story? He was con founded and did not know his own voice. One of the wicked ones got behind him and whispered many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. After a while, he heard the voice of a man going before him, saying, “Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.” We read that he was then glad, “First, because he gathered that some who feared God were in this Valley as well as himself. Secondly, he per ceived that God was with them, though in that dark and dismal state. And why not, thought he, with me; though, by reason of the impediment that attends this place, I cannot perceive it.” Some of the greatest of God’s saints have known such times and trodden such paths. Some have lost every sense of God’s presence and gone out as though in the dark. Indeed some have been driven to depart this life under weird and awful circumstances which we cannot possibly explain. But it will help to remember that we are beset by invisible powers and we had better not underesti mate the nature and number of our adversaries. Truly our souls need to be on their guard for “ten thousand foes arise and the hosts of sin are press ing hard to draw us from the skies.”
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OCTOBER, 1969
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