No Intruders Allowed!!!!

Whenever the weather gets warm, yellow jackets and red wasps started sneaking into my house and the battle for territory begins.

Each time I discover the unwelcome intruders, I set off with fly swatter in hand to annihilate them. The task is not always an easy one. One thing is certain though. I am determined to conquer, and there’s no way that I will rest until the intruders are destroyed.

One time a little while back, a wasp snuck into my bedroom in the middle of the night, and in my attempts to end his life, I accidentally swatted him into some crevice (it turned out to be the air conditioner). However, I didn’t know where he had gone, and I was literally awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night ransacking every corner in my room trying to find him. I should have just given up the search and gone back to bed, but I couldn’t sleep knowing that he was somewhere in my room. Later, my family laughed as I told them the story about the midnight wasp-hunting escapade, and I laugh now too. But I think there is a profound spiritual illustration to this story.    

What if we attacked every hint of sin or compromise that attempted entrance into our lives like I went after those wasps? What if, when the enemy finds a hole in our spiritual fortification, we do not rest, but go after that specific breach with a vengeance in prayer until the intruder can no longer claim that foothold in our life? What would our lives look like today if this were the attitude we had toward preserving the integrity of our spiritual fortification???

The problem is…we have grown complacent to these little breaches. They don’t seem like such a big deal. “After all,” we reason, looking around at our companions, “Their breaches are much bigger than mine!” But nothing is small in the sight of God. And to Satan, he doesn’t care how he gets a foothold, as long as he has one. It may be an impatient remark, a rolling of the eyes, a slipping of the tongue, going against our conscience in even the smallest way, or something else rather insignificant. But if we let one “character breach” in, more are sure to follow. So we must stop allowing in the unwelcome intruders and take back God’s rightful territory!

“He who has determined to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all powers and passions of the unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against him. Each day he must renew his consecration, each day do battle with evil. Old habits, hereditary tendencies to wrong, will strive for the mastery, and against these he is to be ever on guard, striving in Christ’s strength for victory.”[i]

Yes, the enemy will keep testing our wall, looking for loose bricks, trying to gain a foothold. We can expect this as long as we live in his domain. But we are promised:

“With watchfulness and prayer [our] weakest points can be so guarded as to become [our] strongest points, and [we] can encounter temptation without being overcome.”[ii]

There is nothing so satisfying as knowing you have been in direct conflict with the enemy of darkness and you have prevailed. Victory is possible in Christ! Just keep holding on to Him until the victory is accomplished, for it is certain to come.

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[i] Acts of the Apostles, p. 476

[ii] Pastoral Ministry, p. 24