One of the great tragedies of the Church in this generation, and one of the greatest sufferings of God, is that so many Christians are not truly happy.
They present a pleasant facade: they sing, they applaud, they smile and they praise. But just below the surface lurk loneliness and deep misery; His joy does not remain.
These Christians are hot, and suddenly they get cold. They can not cope with fear. Depression overwhelms them like a steamroller. One week they are at the top, and the next week they are in the abyss. Many times your marriage also follows that pattern. One day everything goes well between husband and wife, and the next day they can not stand it. There are days when they can not even talk to each other. His explanation is: "Well, this is how marriage should work. One can not expect to remain happy and loving all the time. "
Believers who have been caught by that cycle of ups and downs should pay attention to Paul's words to Timothy. The apostle encourages the young man to help others to come to their senses "and escape the snare of the devil, in that they are captive at his will" (2 Timothy 2:26).
That perfectly describes many believers: since they give him entrance, Satan enters and leaves his life as many times as he wants. They do not exercise authority to stop the devil at the entrance of his heart, and he reproaches them, with boasting, for the power he has over them; He tells them: "You do not have the power of Christ inside to stop me. You are my captive, and I am going to do what I want. "
It is amazing that lack of victory in Christ! Satan puts fear, loneliness, depression or lust in the hearts of those people when he wants. Was that why Christ died? To have children who are under the power of the will of the devil? Is this our testimony before the world: "Give your heart to Christ, but leave your will to the devil"?
Of course not! There is no reason for a Christian to live as a slave of the devil. Those who are caught in that satanic bond may blame their unhappiness on suffering, ill health, misunderstandings or having a spouse, employer or friend who is not interested in them. They may blame whatever they want, but Paul says that the real reason is because they "oppose" (see 2 Timothy 2:25). "Oppose" means to place oneself in a position of being trapped, to reject God's path of liberation and victory. These people have opposed the path of God and have established their own path, and do not want to do what needs to be done to get rid of the devil's trap.
Are you in that situation? If Satan takes advantage of his emotions and you go from bad to worse; if your problems are getting more complex; if fear is increasing, if joy diminishes and sadness becomes chronic, then there is something very serious that is wrong.
You are captive of the enemy of your soul. He must become aware of the trap he is in and try to be liberated. If you have been serving the Lord for only a few months, you must grow day by day in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Your spiritual victories must be visible. You must have the certainty of the constant presence of the Lord, and you will be transformed from glory to glory in the image of Christ. It is time for Satan to flee from you!
So what is the problem? Why have so many Christians been held captive? It is because their hunger for Christ does not lead them to the point of wanting to walk with Him. They do not seek the holiness of Christ. Let's look at the life of a man who lived this to a degree that few have been able to achieve: Enoch. We can all learn from his example. "Enoch walked with God" (Genesis 5:24). The original Hebrew sense of walking implies that Enoch rose and fell, entered and left, advanced and retreated, from the arm of God, continually conversing with Him and approaching Him more and more. Enoch's father, Jared, was nine hundred and sixty-two years old; and the son of Enoch, Methuselah, lived until nine hundred and sixty-nine. Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years, that is, a "year" of years. In it we see a new kind of believer. For three hundred and sixty-five days of each year, for all of his three hundred and sixty-five years, he walked shoulder to shoulder with the Lord. He was his very life; so much so that, at the end of his life, he did not see death:
By faith Enoch was transposed to see no death, and was not found, because God transposed him; and before he was transposed, he had testimony of having pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please God; for it is necessary that he who comes to God believes that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
Hebrews 11.5-6
Like Enoch, who was transposed from this life, those who walk close to God are placed beyond the reach of Satan; They are taken out of their kingdom of darkness and transported into the kingdom of light of Christ: "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated kingdom of his beloved Son "(Colossians 1:13). Right now we are transferred, out of the trap of the devil, and taken to the very heart of Jesus. Here the Greek word that translates translated suggests that Christ comes personally and takes us away from the power of the devil and places us in a heavenly place. God transfers only those who walk with Him, like Enoch. Those who remain captive to the will of Satan can not be taken away and delivered from darkness.
I believe that we are not truly saved until our heart firmly decides to walk with God. We can assure that we are saved and that we love him, and we can Tell the whole world that we belong to God. We can even pray, cry and devour his Word. But if we do not walk close to Him every day, we will never change. We are going to fall deeper and deeper into slavery.
Enoch learned to walk before God by pleasing Him, in the midst of an evil society. And he was an ordinary man, with the same problems and burdens that we endure. He was not a hermit hiding in a desert cavern; I led a normal life, with a wife, children, obligations and responsibilities. Enoch was not "hiding to be holy."
Today, however, many Christians are fleeing to the mountains to hide from the calamities that are increasing. There are supposed prophets who are telling people to come to their sheltered rural shelters. Messianic Christians (Jewish converts) are told to flee to Israel to escape the financial collapse looming in the United States. But Enoch showed that the best testimony is to walk with God in middle of the storm, regardless of the obstacles. Jesus' command was "Go!", Not "Flee!"But Enoch knew perfectly well that this world was impious. He cast a glance forward, through the story, until the days of the end, and all he could say was: "Wicked!"
Of these also Enoch, seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying: Behold, the Lord came with his holy tens of thousands, to make judgment against all, and to convict all the wicked of all their ungodly deeds that they have done wickedly, and all the hard things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Jude 14-15
We must not hide from the world. But at the same time, if we are walking with the Lord, we must see the world as Enoch saw it: impious, full of the spirit of Antichrist and contaminated with harsh words against our God.