Emotional Wholeness
Why Do I Struggle
If I am a Christian and have a new nature then why do I face so many difficulties and why do I continue to struggle with so many areas of life? This is a good question and one question that is common to every Christian. The answer is this- We live on planet Earth and we live in a physical body and we continue to live where sin is everywhere present. We are in real war, with real spiritual enemies and their primary goal is to undermine the Person and work of Christ by causing me to turn from following Christ.
Inward Opposition to Christ
We have a heart, a mind, and a body that naturally opposes Christ, and we have a spiritual enemy that naturally partners with our human nature to oppose the work of Christ. The partnership of Spiritual Darkness with our human nature is formidable for it changes the arena of battle from without to within.
We have the world, the flesh, and the Devil dedicated to the destruction of the those who we are in Christ. See the New Man. This battle is intense, it is very real, and its goal is my destruction. Our Enemy will do, or say, anything and it is our responsibility to not listen to Him. Even though citizens of Heaven, we are not yet residents of Heaven.
Since Evil continues to be present and powerful, every follower of Jesus Christ will experience mental, emotional, and spiritual struggles. It is our victory over these enemies that prove salvation to be real. Remember the victory of Job. His righteousness was proved to be real in the context of struggle. He overcame the personal loss, the grieving, the unsound advice of his friends, and the counsel of his wife to curse God and die; these all being part of the grand scheme to cause Job to sin.
The Mystery of Iniquity
The Scripture tells us, that in this world, the mystery of iniquity is presently at work. This ongoing presence of iniquity affects the entire world and profoundly resists the Person and work of Christ. Also, and related, is the reality of an Antichrist spirit in the world who opposes and criticizes any and every effort to honor Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Our life, because of the nature of deception, both inward and outward, will continue to experience fierce opposition of all kinds, until we leave this world.
Eph 6:11-12
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Victory in the Struggle shows Salvation to be Real
Our victory over darkness proves God's wisdom in choosing to redeem a people through Christ Jesus. The purpose of salvation is to give us victory over sin, over death, and over the Devil. Jesus alone has purchased this victory for us, and by His victory, He has shown all creation His power is greater than the power of Satan.
As we overcome sin we show the Cross to be more powerul than sin. Jesus won an amazing victory, He saved the elect and reconciled the unrighteous to God. Man had sinned yet Jesus defeated sin and restored His people to righteousness. He won a complete victory over our fleshly nature and He defeated the devil by overcoming death. He defeated the the power of the world, and He did it all by His death, His burial, and His resurrection.
Our challenge is to overcome and thereby show all creation the reality of the wonderful victories purchased for us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Our Life On Earth
God could have translated us directly to heaven the very moment we were born-again. But instead He chose to leave us in this demon possessed, sin infected world. And in addition, He chose to leave us in a body that is opposed to God, and He chose to leave us with a mind and heart that also naturally opposes God. He then tells us to manage our bodies, and renew our minds through His Word.
By possessing, and then walking out the victories of the Cross, we show Jesus Christ to be the Lord over all. This is why all Christians have major struggles, Darkness violently hates and opposes the Lordship of Christ. Each Christian victory is a reminder and proof that the Seed of the Woman has bruised the Head of the Serpent.
Even though we struggle, we are not defeated. We do not allow Evil to rule us! We may stumble, but we get up and keep going; we show principalities and powers in heavenly places, the great wisdom of God, in His eternal purposes through Christ Jesus. God has finally and definitively dealt with Satan.
Satan is thoroughly and forever defeated. His defeat is of such nature that he without hope! Christ has thoroughly defeated sin, death, hell, and Satan himself. The resurrection of Christ is the proof of Satan's eternal defeat, and Christ eternal victory.
Satan's future consists only of the lake of fire and brimstone. And further proof of his defeat is that he will be forcibly cast into the lake of fire and brimstone by One more powerful than he. He does not want to be there but he has no choice. He has opposed God, opposed Christ, and opposed the Redeemed, and He has been defeated, big time!! Our supreme and high calling for the present, is to understand, and walk out Christ's complete victory over the world, over the flesh, and over the Devil.
See New Man
