Dear <<First Name>>,
December was a scary month. For the first time ever we were unable to make our mortgage payment and experienced what it felt like to stare foreclosure in the face. Thanks to many generous special gifts we had enough this month to pay last month's bills as well as our current ones, but the fear continues to hang around.
There are plenty of things I'm afraid of losing. This morning those things were making me crazy, and I opened the Bible "randomly", asking God to speak to me. These are the words I read:
"Be very glad. There is great joy ahead."
And for a moment I could taste that joy. Heaven has a way of reaching backwards into present troubles and transforming them. Even if I lost everything I'm afraid of losing and more, that joy would still be waiting for me. So I took all the things and people I care about, opened my clenched fists, and relinquished them to God. Almost immediately I felt the fear slip away. Satan can't take anything from me that I've already given away.
While I was in Nigeria, I gave a devotional at the workshop that I entitled, "Stick it to the Beast!" I just revisited the talk I gave to that group of men and women "of whom the world is not worthy," and my heart was encouraged, so I decided to pass it on to you here. The real reason I keep a blog is so I can find the things God says to me when I need them. Maybe it's what you need today as well.
"Stick it to the Beast!"
Devotional for the ICAL Discourse Workshop, October 2014
"Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
"Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, 'It has come at last - salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.'
"Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea…. And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority…. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast…. Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of man. His number is 666" (Revelation 12: 7-11).
We have been reminded repeatedly during this course that we are targets of our enemy, the devil. He hates what we are learning here. He hates the work we are doing. The beast of Revelation is already at work in the world, waging war against God’s holy people. The Bible says he has been given authority over all the tribes and peoples and languages of the world. He knows that the work we have been called to, Bible translation into those languages, will rescue people from his authority. And so he is very angry at us.
But we are not left without defense. We can resist. In our church in America, we call our resistance to him “sticking it to the Beast”. So let’s talk today about how we can “stick it to the Beast” in our lives, in our families, and in our work.
Revelation 13 gives us the number of the beast who is the ruler of this world: His number is 666. The number 7 is the number of God, of wholeness, of completion, of the rest God enjoyed as he surveyed his perfect, completed work on the 7th day of creation. We are told that the number 6 is the number of man, created on the 6th day. Why is the beast’s number the number of man? Because the world’s system that he has set up deceives us into thinking that we can run our own lives in the strength of our own wisdom. It tells us that we should cling to our lives and spend them in the quest for security and safety. It tells us that we should accumulate large bank accounts to protect us from poverty. And one of these days it will tell us that we should take the mark of the beast so our precious money cannot be taken from us.
But there is one thing we can do that prevents the beast from controlling us, and that is to refuse to cling to our lives. He has no power over us if we do not love our lives so much as to shrink from death. The most powerful weapon we have against him is to relinquish everything – our health, our loved ones, our security, our money, our future, and our work – to our loving heavenly Father. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:39, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”
That is how we “stick it to the beast”!
We are told in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Letting go of our lives, relinquishing them to God, is not something we do passively. It takes everything we have, every day, to trust God with everything we have. It is in itself an act of resistance to the ruler of this world. It is hard work. It is an act of war.
Our Lord Jesus is our example in this. He relinquished his life to his heavenly Father out of obedience to Him. He did not want to suffer. He even asked his Father to take his cup of suffering away, but he submitted himself to God: “Not my will, but yours be done.” In John 14:30-31 Jesus tells his disciples before his arrest,“The ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.”
What was the result of Jesus relinquishing his life to the Father? Satan did his worst to him. But Satan was defeated forever by the very cross he used to kill Jesus.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6-7,“I speak with words of wisdom, but it is not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
The ruler of this world, the beast, didn’t understand God’s wisdom then, and he does not understand it now. People who follow this world’s system think you are foolish to give up offers of financial security and personal safety to do this work of Bible translation. The beast still thinks he can destroy you and your work with fear and intimidation. He doesn’t understand our secret weapon: “not loving our lives so much as to shrink from death.”
“But to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I rejoice in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 10:7-10).
Who gave Paul this thorn in his flesh? God did! And who did he send to deliver it? A messenger of Satan! That messenger didn’t understand God’s wise plan any more than Satan did when he crucified Jesus. He was probably delighted with himself and thought he was going to bring Paul down with this! But he only played directly into God’s hand. God knew that Paul was in danger of trusting in himself and the wisdom of man, so he gave Paul a special gift to prevent that from happening. And the result was that the very things Satan sent to try to destroy Paul – insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles – only released the power of Christ in him all the more.
Yes, it is true that all of us here are targets of Satan’s attacks. He is angry at what we are doing here. He does not want Bibles to be translated into the languages of groups of people where his authority still holds. But we have a weapon that he will never be able to understand. Today we can relinquish our lives to God as an act of resistance. We can “stick it to the Beast!”
By participating in this work, you are part of this Resistance Movement. Thank you!
Wishing you a "very glad" day,
Barb |
