We often become discouraged in the on-going warfare of flesh mortification. This is because Satan is a master strategist, and he knows exactly when to hit you with a missile to maximize the potential for damage. The powers of darkness have studied your life in detail; they know your weaknesses, your hot-spots, your soft-spots, the areas of past bondage, the physical addictions and psychological perversions you were enslaved to while in your pre-converted state of Adam.
Never allow yourself to think you are smarter or stronger than your ancient spiritual foe. He has millions of devils at his disposal to seek out your destruction, and if it were not for God’s prevailing grace upon each waking moment of your life, you would succumb to the flesh in a moment and be inextricably and irretrievably lost. I keep this fact in my mind at all times, for it helps me be humble, lowly, poor in spirit – which, in turn, brings more grace to withstand the evil of the day thereof through the power of God.
Always remember, dear saint, that devils are outside your mind and heart, a multitude of seducing spirits seeking entry. Imagine a clean-swept, well-lit castle surrounded by a huge iron wall, with a legion outside ceaselessly planning, crafting, and masterminding besiegement campaigns. They bring with them catapults of money, crossbows of lust, spears of self, flaming arrows of pride. Night and day they encamp outside the walls, sometimes in quiet planning, and sometimes in a full assault that can last for weeks or even months.
Every assault, I believe, has to be first approved by God. This is how the Lord tests our hearts, by allowing Satan to storm the walls and incite our flesh. During these campaigns, the Lord watches how we react: Do we seek to fend off the invaders in our own strength? Do we too quickly succumb to the attack, without any resistance at all? Do we pray for grace? These are all factors God monitors during these castle-warring tests; His next course of action for our lives is built upon our reaction to the assault. When the test has accomplished its means, God commands a cease-fire, and then deals with the saint accordingly.
When a saint has been awakened to the amazing love of Jesus Christ and the power afforded to him as he surrenders his will and walks in the Spirit, He begins to see a divine law come into effect. All the hosts of heaven come to his aid. A ray of light suddenly comes to expel the shadow; before the face of God all darkness must flee. Walking in the Spirit banishes the power of darkness with instantaneous effect. This walk comes by a careful and consistent method of mortification day after day. If we are faithful to gird-up the loins of our minds, and if we allow God to renew our minds for the purpose of taking each seductive thought captive to the obedience of Christ, we can foil each castle invasion. As we continue to foil the plans and strategies of hell, our heart-purity remains preserved, and God is able to bless our spirits with rich, sin-victorious grace.
Dear saint, this is God’s divine will for your life. Regardless of how wretched you are, and how unfaithfully you’ve defended the castle walls in the past, God extends His mighty hand to you today to start over. In fact, your many failures are an asset! This is because the Lord rejects those strong defenders by religious willpower, who have not yet learned to humbly overcome by His power alone. Religious men may disdain and impugn you for your failure; God, however, wills to promote and exceedingly bless you despite your failures. If you are crushed, grief-stricken, exasperated and fatalistically downcast over your defeats and impregnable strongholds, you are not far from the all-liberating power God. You are in a very blessed place, for it is in this state of brokenness where God begins teaching the holy art of mortification by the Spirit.
- Brother Paul West
