The Adversary (2)

Our very own impurities help refine us

THE SMITH

'“Behold, I have created the blacksmith (Satan) Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy.' Isaiah 54:16

Let us connect this scripture to the wonderful story of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego:

'Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. ' Daniel 3:19

Certainly, Nebuchadnazzar represented the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire to increase the heat. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego entered the fire as 'friends of Daniel' but came out as officials in the city, they came out as rulers; they came out with a crown of life. Remember once more:

'Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.' Revelation 2:10

Indeed, God created an adversary, an opponent, for man to wrestle with and defeat. For how can one say they are kind if they have not been tested for it? How can one say they have love if they have not been tested for it? Can a man rise up and call himself a doctor without facing the PhD. exam ?

If one can see it, this adversary is not outside but within us. We are our own enemies. Jesus said: 'and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ ' Matthew 10:36

We can say that Jesus was fighting Satan in the wilderness and we will be right, we can also say that he was FIGHTING HIS DESIRES and we will also be right. Our very own desires are our enemies that we are to conquer. Our very desires are the very material that God uses to refine us, to test us.

To clarify, God doesn't test us to see what we would do. He already knows what we would do. It is we who don't know it and we don't know that we don't know what we are capable of. For the sake of love, God will have us know it so that we can conquer it.

Like I shared in "The Cost of Faith", I really believed I was a 'sister mary' until God tested me and I saw that I was very ugly; capable of all manners of things. The worst of me came out to give me the opportunity to conquer it. One can only conquer what they know.

Indeed, that discovery, that great fall, was a blessing to me. Like Jesus in the wilderness. I needed to come face to face with my own desires. I needed to come face to face with Satan. Adam & Eve needed to come face to face with Satan, with their desires, if they were going to conquer it. Their very temptation, their very own Satan was built upon their desires.

You cannot tempt a two year old with a bundle of money, it means nothing to her. You can however tempt her with breast milk and you will see that even babies are not as innocent as we think. They are just incapable of fully expressing the sin that already exists in them. Satan does not exist independent of our own desires; he is a mirror of it; Satan is our very desires; he needs to be conquered.

Desire is not evil, evil is slavery to desire. Evil is desire out of control, desire that controls and spurs us to do things that harm us and harm others. Those very desires within us are the material in which God constructs our trials and testings; our pruning. A trial can only correspond to our desires. This is why the cleansing and pruning of God is never separated from Satan, our enemy.

Let us remember what Jesus said to Peter:

'And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”' Luke 22:31-32

Symbol of challenges faced through life.

Symbolically speaking, there is no difference between the refining of gold and sifting of wheat. In farming, the purpose of sifting wheat is not to destroy it but to remove the chaff – the dust, husks, and impurities; leaving the good and useful parts behind. This is similar to the blacksmith heating up gold to a point where zinc, copper, iron and all other metals evaporate, leaving the pure gold behind.

Now let us ask ourselves, why would Jesus liken the work of Satan upon Peter to a cleansing process? Why will he allow Satan take him? Why would he think that Peter will gain strength if he 'overcomes' the adversity?

On one hand God is the one that sets opposition, satan, adversity, against us and it is completely for our benefit. On another hand we can also say that we are the ones who set opposition unto ourselves by reason of our own sinful nature. We create in ourselves desires that we will sooner or later have to face and defeat in order to grow.

Indeed, adversity, the enemy, Satan, is a necessity in life and God is the one that put it there. We can also say that WE put it there because even though we say God tests us, we can also say that we are tested by our own selves. Both are correct, it is a paradox. That which poisons us is also that which must make us immune.

Some might ask: "what is the logic in this?" as a response I would also ask you what the logic is in the paediatrician 'vaccinating' a child from polio by INJECTING POLIO itself into that child. Yes, vaccines are nothing but controlled dosages of the very virus the doctor wishes to immunize the child from.

Will we then say the doctor was trying to kill that child? Quite the contrary! Parents who shield their children from adversity actually make them vulnerable to it. The only way to make a person invulnerable to adversity is to expose them to it and guide them through it.

In the process of being injected with 'just enough' of the polio virus, the immune system of the child develops a resistance to it. Its old and feeble cells die and new cells are born with a crown of life, possessing complete dominion and rulership over polio. The polio which has the capacity of killing the child actually facilitates the development of the child's strength. God uses this same principle.

Indeed polio is a liar and a lie, one which only has substance to those who are not immune to it. Polio only exists to those who have not yet defeated it. In this present year 2020, every single one of us are carriers of bacteria so powerful, that if it were injected into people who lived 500 years ago they will all perish. Yet here we are, living in harmony with things capable of being a great adversity to others.

Adversity only exists so long as vulnerability exists. Once vulnerability ceases, Satan also ceases. No witch can attack a person if her and that person don't have something in common. She needs a raw material in her victim that corresponds to her own evil nature. It could be anger, or lust or whatever. If she cannot find such in that person, then this there is nothing that 'links' her with that person; that person is immune.

This is why demons screamed at the sight of Jesus. He had no vulnerability to exploit. To him, they did not exist. Our very uncontrolled desires, our very sinful nature, our very flaws, are the very things that weaken us and they are the very thing that will be used to sharpen us.

Like polio, God exposes us to adversity in different ways and forms to unveil our vulnerabilities and help us conquer it. It could be our spouses, a colleague at work, it could be our brother or sister, it could be our parents. They will bring out THE WORST IN US so that we can defeat the worst in us. This is why Jesus said love your enemies, they help us to grow.

IS IT MAN OR IS IT GOD?

Nonetheless, God does not tempt anyone. It is our own desires that tempt us. Suffering comes into existence when a reality we are experiencing contradicts a reality we desire to experience.

Suffering is a product of our need for control. We want to control how people perceive us, how people treat us. We want to control the weather, we want to control our ageing process. We want to control, control, control. When things go 'out of our control' we begin to suffer and say 'God is making me suffer'. God does not make anyone suffer, we suffer from our own desires and need for control.

God is not responsible for the evil we see in the world today. Sin is it's own reward. To sin is to go against a thing's original use or design. In doing so, evil becomes born. Your toe was not designed to support your whole body. Using the toe for what it was not meant for makes the toe become an opposition to you; it becomes pain. This, in synthesis, is what the book of Genesis explains in a metaphorical and poetic way.

In the Bible we see God saying "I create good and cause evil", it is true. We however have to understand the way the Hebrew mystical mind views God.

If I jump out the window of a five story building and die, I can say God killed me because he is the one who made the law of gravity. I want us to understand that this statement is true and this is how the Hebrew mind approaches the idea of God. It however does not negate the fact that I KILLED MYSELF by pitting myself against a law that was created for my benefit.

So, when we see in the Bible that God destroyed this and God destroyed that, that is only one half of the coin. The other half is that THEY DESTROYED THEMSELVES by doing things that went against the natural order and function of the human being and the environment. In doing so they 'created' their own enemies; they created Satan. There is no action without consequence.

So long as one flows in the direction of the wind, the wind becomes your aid and support; it assists your journey. If however one goes against the wind, that same force which was designed to assist you becomes your greatest hindrance; it becomes a satan. Will we then say God is the one hindering the journey? No. It is we who hinder ourselves by going against order.

Anyone who thinks there is no order to the universe should observe a tsunami, and see what happens when the waters 'break their banks' for only 2 hours. Today, freedom is confused for savagery and wildness. People think freedom is succumbing to every desire one has, not realizing that that in itself is the greatest slavery imaginable.

Breaking laws puts opposition into activity, God designed nature this way. That design however is for our benefit. There has to be a consequence for wickedness, a consequence that teaches us firsthand the evil of wickedness. Pain in our bodies is our body's way of telling us 'STOP DOING THAT!'.

The universe is like a gigantic human body, when we do things to harm any part of it, it teaches us to STOP DOING THAT. How that expresses itself is not the point, the point is that sin is it's own reward. The sins of a nation will be incurred by every member of that nation and their very sins will be used to refine them.

Until someone or a group of people step up to take responsibility for the sins of the fathers, they will keep on suffering for the sins of their fathers and make their children suffer for their own. Someway somehow, the kindness or wickedness we pay will be repaid. God is balanced; nature is balanced.

'Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ' Galatians 6:7-8

Opposition, challenges, adversity, Satan, our very desires, help us defeat our very desires; it helps us defeat ourselves and gain true authority. Solomon said: "Like a city without wall is he who lacks control over himself". God wants to give us control and he uses opposition, adversity; he uses our very sinful nature and desires to achieve this.

'Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.' 1 Peter 4:12-13

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