There is a strange thing that happens when we say that we hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Automatically we place ourselves in the direct attention of the Devil and his legions. There is a moment where all the powers of evil work together to prevent us from actually hearing and digesting properly those healing and purifying words of our Savior. Satan cannot sit back and let us continue unless we have been successfully diverted from the intended truth.
Make no mistake; the enemy is concerned with the direction of our soul, not the frivolous actions which we generally like to associate with evil. Just as Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Father are concerned too, about the true condition of our very souls and our adjustment to the Divine. We have stated before that fallen human beings are forever trying to divert our attention from this vital adjustment and turn to all other kinds of distractions.
In religion, we do this with the very teachings of Jesus and this is because all the forces of evil are prepared to work with our fallen nature. The secret goal is always to rob us of the potential closeness and righteousness that we gain whenever we draw near in spirit and in actuality.
Take for example the man who drops down to his knees and opens his Bible to search with tears for some inspiration. This man presents far more threat to the intentions of the enemy than the man already going about his own natural way of living his life for himself. We would like to think that just by using the name of Jesus, magically all the forces of evil are suddenly rendered powerless.
Unfortunately however, this is when those evil forces have their most intense work to do. If they are quick and sharp you and I may be swept away on any tangent or frivolous concept and miss that adjusting of ourselves to God and our drawing near to Jesus.
You may, if you are honest, test the spirits on this phenomenon of which we speak. Just think of all the times where you seem to have a moment of enlightenment, and then you lost it again due to the distraction of some technicality. This problem is real and can easily render ineffective the efforts of many Christians, in finding or drawing nearer to Christ.
Help is available though and far more powerful is our safeguard, than all the forces of evil and our natural tendencies towards the ways of the world. But to access this positive help and healing from our bondage has its requirements.
For those who would draw near to Jesus and to the Father, we have only encouraging things to say. It is true that they may suffer opposition and trying times but those serious seekers will not have their eyes on those things, but rather on their goal. God is here and God is Love. God has no rival forces; nothing can touch or harm Him. The forces of evil do exist but they cannot hurt God or reduce Him in any way. They direct themselves to harm the things that God has chosen to care about in the effort to get to Him in that way.
This is where you and I fit into the scene. But there is no need to fear and God in His infinite wisdom and love, has executed His plan to set all things straight again. You and I are invited to be on His side of that plan. Jesus successfully paid the price of our sinful nature; the only thing remaining is to follow Him and His words. This should be a very simple as Jesus spent time here demonstrating and instructing us towards this goal.
There are many things to consider here because there have been and there are so many who have toyed with religion. But due to the spiritual nature, many people seek religion for shallow worldly reasons and results. If your reason for drawing nearer to God is secretly selfish gain, if you just want to live forever or have a fantastic mansion in heaven, you are severely missing the point and direction of true religion.
Unfortunately all the best intentions, if they are not directed at bringing Glory to God or drawing near Him or His Son for who and what they are, will always fall short and our religion will be a shallow and futile effort.
But we have the promises of the Holy Scriptures as proof and surety for those who desire and are willing to go that far with their faith. Therefore we boldly press on and all the very power of the Lord will work in our favor if we remain focused on Him as our goal. Only Jesus may successfully combat the powers of evil and our bondage to this world. No education, no correct doctrine and no magical name throwing, will enable us to overcome the powers of evil at work in our members.
Jesus would be our all and He would be our strength. We arm ourselves by drawing near to Him and His righteousness. But Jesus never sent us away from Himself to fight battles on our own. Jesus draws men unto Him. This is our strength and this is thankfully our goal. All things become perfect when we are directed to Him. In seeking Him we find strength, not only in the finding.
When you and I are looking at Jesus, when we direct our entire direction towards Him and what He wants, we find all the help and instruction we need. This is how we defend ourselves from the powers of evil and the power that our worldly nature has over us. By turning to Jesus to love and adore Him, we access His power not ours.
The reverse is unfortunately true as well, if we look to our power or our intentions, then those evil forces have been successful in weakening our efforts and rendering useless our attempt at drawing near our Goal.
Let us each one seek Jesus in a way today which limits not His power. Let us search to be close to Jesus, so close in fact, that His righteousness covers you and me with it. A world of doctrine and religious pretense is solves and the force of the enemy is reduced when we direct ourselves so completely towards our Lord. When we live not so that Jesus may live in us, then the doors of heaven stand open for us, God is glorified, and the Spirit is allowed to work as He should.
Then that devious enemy has no power over the man who chooses Jesus. You and I may be safe today from our hearts treason and true religion may live on inside of our souls. That blessed adoration and precious protection comes to us when we wrap ourselves so entirely in our Savior.
Let us keep it clear that we are for Him and try to make it the other way around. Then we can shout with the angels and the mountains, ¨To Him be the power and the glory.¨
In Christ,
Scott W
Searching For Christ 
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