Thursday, August 11, 2005

THE SECRET OF SPIRITUAL POWER
by Chip Brogden

"God resists the proud" (James 4:6ff).

The automatic assumption is that anything which resists us or hinders
us is of satanic origin. That is, if we encounter difficulty in our
spiritual walk, our first reaction is to rebuke the devil, or ask the
saints to pray for us to have a clear way. Certainly the devil will
attempt to hinder us from anything we undertake that glorifies God
and threatens the darkness. Yet we learn from James 4:6 that there is
Someone else who can resist us. There is Another Who carefully
watches what we do, and frequently hinders us from making progress.

It comes as a shock and surprise to some Christians to see one day
that God, not the devil, is resisting them. The Lord Himself resists
us, closes doors, causes things to be unfruitful, and spoils all our
plans. How so? Because "God resists the proud." This resistance from
God is insurmountable. It is a fearful thing to fight the Lord. We
spend most of our lives wrestling with God instead of cooperating
with God, and in the end we have nothing to show for it. So much time
and effort is wasted because we proceed in our own, stubborn way. We
attribute all difficulties to the devil, or to other people, or our
circumstances, or our environment, and fail to recognize that the
Lord Himself is resisting us.