Conflict

November 2019 — Grace & Truth Magazine


Conflict

We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. —Romans 8:37 KJV

The strong man in his armor Thou mettest in Thy grace, Did’st spoil the mighty charmer Of our unhappy race.
The chains of man, his victim, Were loosened by Thy hand. No evils that afflict him Before Thy power could stand.

Many do not have the courage to go on in God’s warfare because they hold on to something which is inconsistent with the spiritual light they have received. Perhaps, alas, they lose the light up to which they have not acted. Satan is then able to bring their mind under the darkness of his seemingly “good” reasons for staying where they are, without conquering more territory for Him.

The armor of God should be put on before the battle, not just at the battle. It is exceedingly serious to fight God’s battle against Satan – a most solemn thing that my business is to overcome Satan. The greater the energy of the Spirit the more is the individual in whom it is manifested exposed to the fury of Satan. We should not be merely unbeaten by Satan, but we are to be gaining ground on him.

A new place brings new temptations, but if temptations are new, grace is as new, various and infinite to meet them where we are – where He would have us.

It was by the power of death that the Lord destroyed all the strength of him who had the power of death. Death is the best weapon in the arsenal of God – when it is wielded by the power of life.

There is nowhere that conflict is so much felt as in prayer: that is where Satan desires to come in. If a Christian gets out of dependence on the Lord, he will be beaten by Satan. Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill while Israel under Joshua fought in the plain below with Amalek (Ex. 17:10). Israel might have reasoned on the manner of their fighting, strength of the enemy and 10,000 other things; but, after all, their success depended on Moses’ hands being stretched out (v.11). Likewise, it is very hard for us to see ourselves and Satan as nothing, and God as everything.

I daresay many of us have thought that one good battle with Satan and all will be over, but there is no such thing. We have security and the certainty of victory, but no promise of an end from conflict in this world.

Consider Hebrews 2:18, which says that He suffered but never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation; the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered being tempted, and He is able to help them who are tempted. It is important to observe that the flesh, when acted upon by its desires, does not suffer when being tempted. It, alas, enjoys!

On the other hand, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether he is subtly attacking or openly persecuting. Therefore, when a believer is behaving according to the light of the Holy Spirit and in obedience, then he or she suffers. This is what the Lord did, and this is what we have to do also.

My happiness, O Lord, with Thee Is long laid up in store For that blessed day when Thee I’d see, And conflict all be o’er.

By John N. Darby, adapted from “Pilgrim Portions For The Day Of Rest,” Twelfth Week