Where Do You Stand With God
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." — 2 Corinthians 13:5
Four Questions
Before any teaching about the enemy, there is a set of questions about you. They are uncomfortable and they are meant to be. Answer them honestly, alone, before you read another word.
Do you know Him personally?
Not do you know about Him. Not can you recite what your church teaches. Do you know Him — the way you know a person whose company you have kept?
Does He talk to you?
Not have you heard of people who claim He talks to them. Has He spoken to you, and would you recognize His voice if He did?
Do you walk with Him?
Daily, ordinarily, on the unremarkable Tuesdays. Not in crisis only.
Are you close enough to Him that when you are faced with pure demonic power you can stand against it in the power and authority of Jesus Christ?
That last one is the one this whole book exists to answer.
The Fifth Question
There is one more, and it is the hardest.
Has sin in your life given the enemy legal ground to attack you?
Because if it has, you cannot hope to stand against him. Not because Jesus is insufficient — He is entirely sufficient — but because you will be trying to exercise authority while standing on ground you have already handed over.
This is the reason so many sincere believers command and rebuke and see nothing move. The problem is rarely their faith. It is usually their ground.
Why This Cannot Wait
The pressure that reveals what a person actually is does not schedule itself politely.
What will you do when you are faced with genuine evil — not the theoretical kind discussed in a Bible study, but the kind that arrives at your door? The glitter of impressive Christian celebrity will not stand in the face of such evil. Neither will a faith assembled out of other people's testimonies.
Only a real relationship stands. And a real relationship is built in the ordinary days before the pressure comes, not manufactured in the hour it arrives.
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." (Isaiah 55:6)
That is a solemn warning with a deadline in it. If we do not seek the Lord now, then when the trouble comes we will not have the relationship we need to get us through it.
Point to Ponder
A relationship is built in the ordinary days before the pressure, not manufactured in the hour it arrives.
Verse to Remember
"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." — Isaiah 55:6
Question to Consider
If severe pressure came this month, what would I actually be standing on?
Today's Practice
Write out the five questions from this lesson by hand, leaving space under each.
Then answer each one in writing, honestly, as though no one else will ever read it — because no one else will.
- Do I know Him personally?
- Does He speak to me?
- Do I walk with Him daily?
- Could I stand against genuine evil in His authority?
- Is there sin in my life giving the enemy legal ground?
Where the answer is no, do not spiral into self-condemnation. Write instead: this is where the work begins.
Keep the page. At the end of these hundred lessons you will answer the same five questions again, and you will want to compare.
Prayer
Father, I have answered these questions honestly and I do not like all of my answers.
I know a great deal about You. I am not sure how much of it is knowing You. I have prayed for years and I am not sure I have ever heard You speak. I have a faith assembled mostly out of what other people told me was true.
I do not want to arrive at a day of real testing with nothing underneath me.
So begin the work. Where there is sin in my life giving ground to my enemy, expose it — I would rather be convicted now than defeated later. Where I do not know You, make Yourself known. Where I cannot hear You, teach me to listen.
I am seeking You while You may be found. Let me find You. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The problem is rarely your faith. It is usually your ground.