“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” Luke 2:34
Dear Ones:
In the life of Daniel in the Old Testament, there came a day, when God gave him a vision of the glorified Christ. An angel had been sent by God to reveal to him the meaning of the vision which concerned the last, or “latter days.” (Dan. 10:14) However, according to the words of the angel, he met with resistance in coming to Daniel. The angel told Daniel: “…the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the king of Persia.” (v.13) One element which must be underlined, and understood, concerning this passage of Scripture is that there is a spiritual conflict going on in the heavenlies. It was true in Daniel’s day, in Jesus’ day, and later, in the days of the Apostle Paul. The Lord Jesus, from the very beginning of his coming to this earth, was sought out by Satan, to destroy Him. Jesus was confronted in the wilderness by Satan, being tempted for forty days. Even during Christ’s ministry, the reign of the “prince of the power of the air,” opposed Christ’s disciples, and again, sought to destroy the Lord Jesus with a storm at sea. In the writings of the Apostle Paul, He writes, that by Christ’s victory on the Cross, He, “…spoiled principalities and powers,” (Col. 2:15) and, “…made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Applying the reality of this conflict to the church, Paul would write: “For we wrestle not 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) The point that we must realize is that the advancement of the kingdom of God on this earth, and the will of God being done, will be opposed by an invisible enemy. This resistance will translate into people of flesh and blood, opposing the believer, just as they did the Lord Jesus.
It is a remarkable fact that, when Israel crossed the Jordan River, to begin the conquest of Canaan, she met with resistance. The walls of Jericho stood as a formidable point and demonstration of resistance. The people of Jericho had heard how the Lord had given to Israel victory over two kings on the other side of the river, and had provided a way through the Red Sea, and the Jordan River, now appearing at their gates. According to the words of Rahab to Joshua’s spies, “…your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.” (Joshua 2:9) Here is a city, a people, who logically speaking, should have surrendered to Israel, but they deliberately chose not to do so. Their resistance, and refusal to give ground, was founded in the reality of spiritual forces that were behind them. There would be only one answer to this defiant resistance, the intervention of God, and the overcoming of that resistance by God’s intervention.
In one of the most extraordinary statements by the Lord Jesus concerning this spiritual resistance, He told Peter: “…I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) To every church addressed by name in the book of the Revelation, the Lord concludes His remarks by exhorting each individual, and church, to “overcome.” The triumph of Christ is to be known and lived by the church, overcoming the resistance that Christ knew, so that the kingdom of God will come, and the will of God be done, “…in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Marie Durand, a young French Protestant, who lived around 1730, was incarcerated in a prison on the coast of France, where she would remain thirty-eight years. All she had to do to be free, was to recant her faith. In the center of this tower, this prison, is a stone on which she wrote the word: “Resister.”
Dear Father, Give us grace to victoriously overcome every day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad