Job 5:26 π Acts 2:23 π 1 Cor. 9:27
The will of the believer "will"-ing physical death, gives the Adversary power of death over that one, and no believer should yield to a "desire to die" until he knows beyond question that God has released him from further service to His people. That a believer is "ready to die" is a very small matter; he must be ready to live, until he is sure that his life work is finished. God does not harvest His corn until it is ripe, and His redeemed children should be "garnered as a shock of corn in its season." ( Job 5:26; top )
It is ofttimes the prince of death as a Murderer, working through the ignorance of God's children,
1) as to his power,
2) the conditions by which they give him power, and
3) the victory of prayer by which they resist his power,
who cuts off God's soldiers from the battlefield. It is Satan as a Murderer, who gives "visions of glory," "longings to die," to workers of value to the Church of God, so that they yield to death, even in days of active service, and slowly fade away.
Believers who would have victory over Satan at every point, must resist his attack on the body, as well as on the spirit and mind. They must seek knowledge of God's laws for the body, so as to obey those laws, and give no occasion to Satan to slay them. They should know the place of the body in the spiritual life;
1) its prominence, and yet
2) its obscurity.
Paul said, "I keep under my body." ( 1 Cor. 9:27; top ) They must understand that the more knowledge they have of the devices and power of the Adversary, and of the fullness of the Calvary victory within their reach for complete victory over him, the more he will plan to injure them. The whole of his schemes against God's children may be summed up under three heads:
1) To cause them to sin, as he tempted Christ in the wilderness;
2) To slander them, as Christ was slandered by family and foes;
3) To slay them, as Christ was slain at Calvary, when, by the direct permission of God, the hour and power of darkness gathered around Him, and He by the hands of wicked men was crucified and slain. ( Acts 2:23; top )
As the believer gains victories over Satan, and his deceiving and lying spirits, by thus recognizing, resisting and triumphing over them in their varied workings, his strength of spirit to conquer them grows stronger; and he will become more and more equipped to give the truth of the finished work of Calvary as sufficient for victory over sin and Satan; in the power and authority of Christ by the Holy Spirit; which will set others free from their power.
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