Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to another week of the year. My prayer is that your heart will be strengthened and humbled to allow God to fully take charge of your life, so that it is only His works and not Satan’s works that will be finding expression in it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
In Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20, John gives us this great outcry of our Lord Jesus to the church of the Laodiceans: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev 3:20NIV) Why would the Lord need to be knocking the door of any Christian’s life? Is He not our Lord? He is! And as our Lord, is He not supposed to be inside our lives and sitting over all our affairs? He is! Why, then, would He need our permission and cooperation to come in and fellowship with us in any area of our lives?
The reason is simple. The Lord does not force Himself on people. On the contrary, He allows them to think for themselves and decide whether they need Him in their lives or not and act accordingly. That explains why the whole world has not been saved. The Lord will not force His salvation on us. We will have to agree that we need salvation and that we cannot save ourselves from the things destroying us unless He saves us.
But then, it is one thing for us to come to the Lord for salvation, it is another thing for us to allow Him to utterly save us and to eternally keep us safe. And how will this be possible? It is by giving Him room to lead us in every area of our lives, not keeping any part away from Him. As God’s children, He is already living us, for we are His temple. However, that He is living in us does not mean that He is in charge of our lives and all our affairs. That He is living in us does not mean that He will not have to knock the door of certain areas of our lives to see if we will permit Him to take charge of them.
We all know ourselves. We all know whether we have given our Lord Jesus room to control us in every area of our lives or not. We all know those areas of our lives in which we have totally shut Him out because we don’t want to hear what He has to say to us about them or because we believe we can handle ourselves in them. What we may not know, however, is that our Lord Jesus did not die for us to be Lord only over a few areas of our lives. Rather, He died for us to be Lord over every area of our lives.
Also, our Lord Jesus did not rescue us from the devil and his hosts so that He could become Lord over just some areas of our lives. Rather, He rescued us so that He might become Lord over every area of our lives. Therefore, if we will not willingly permit Him to take charge of every area of our lives, if we are shutting Him out of our lives or some part of our lives, simply because He will not force Himself in, then, we can expect the enemies of our souls that He saved us from to seize the opportunity to come back into our lives and renew their works. And they will not knock or wait for our permission if they are coming in. They will just come right in, with or without our permission.
Look at what our Lord Jesus says about this: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” (Matt 12:43-45NIV) Did you see that? The devil and his demons are always looking and checking out for where to rest. And the only reason they will not be able to make our lives or any area of our lives their home or resting place is for them to see that it is already occupied and governed by the Lord Jesus.
But if they should come around to examine our lives and find them or any part of them empty and unoccupied by the only one who has authority and power over them, they will not lose time at all to gather forces to take charge of that part of our lives. Then things can only get worse for us in that part of our lives. And if we still hesitate to allow the Lord to step in and take charge, it will not be long before the works of these evil beings spread to other areas of our lives.
Now perhaps this is the situation with you. Instead for things to get better in certain areas of your life where you are encountering challenges, they are not just getting worse but also beginning to affect other areas of your life that have been peaceful. Then you need to check yourself to see if you have not shut the Lord Jesus out of some of your affairs. And if that is the case, the only solution is for you to repent and open the door for Him without delay, so that He can do that which only He can do and restore your peace and joy. But if you remain adamant and insist on not allowing Him, then, be ready to welcome more of Satan’s works in your life and affairs with or without your permission.
Have a splendid week.
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