Heart Tracks - Unauthorized

"You Levites form a bodyguard for the king and keep your weapons in hand. Any unauthorized person who enters the Temple must be killed. Stay right beside the king at all times." 2 Chronicles 23:7

This is the context of the above Scripture; Ahazia, the king of Judah is dead. His mother, Athalia, has seized power and put to death all other members of the royal family....except Ahazia's son Joash, the rightful king. For six years he is hidden in the Temple until Jehoida the priest led a revolt against Athalia, saying to his followers, "The time has come for the king's son to reign." The child king was then surrounded by and guarded by other priests, who were instructed to stay near the king, and kill anyone who sought to come near him with the intent to harm him. The revolt succeeded, and in this passage of Scripture I see teaching for how those who are His may live a truly holy, sanctified life. It's simple really. Like the priests, we stay near the King, Jesus Christ. Indeed, not just near Him, we live in Him. It's where we abide....at all times.

The number of "unauthorized" things that seek to invade our minds and hearts is beyond counting. Impure thoughts and desires. Anger, fear, attitudes of bitterness and unforgiveness. Pride, self-centeredness, and a million and one idols ready and willing to take the place of Him in our lives. We can be sure of something in all of it; in ourselves we have no power to overcome them. They will always, in the end, overcome us. The fact that they are "unauthorized" means they have no real authority over us, yet convince us that they do. All of our fleshly defenses will, sooner or later, fail us. One way or another, they will destroy us.
Our only hope, our only victory, is to stay near Him. To stay, abide, in Him. We cannot "kill" these threats that seek to steal and kill our life in Him. He can. He will. They cannot penetrate a heart and mind that makes Him their dwelling place. All the might of hell and darkness fail to enter into a heart and life that abides at all times in Him.

How does this "work" in our day to day living? To abide in Him will yield a moment by moment consciousness of Him. When those darts of fire launched by the enemy seek to pierce our minds and hearts, they are quickly extinguished as we yield them to Him. They are taken captive to His presence, which is not hard because we are living in His presence. Attitudes, desires, temptations, all crafted by an enemy of our souls to bring about spiritual failure and destruction, are "killed" before they reach us with their intent because we are living in the King. And they are all powerless before Him. This is a lifestyle. A lifestyle that discovers the mystery of what Christ meant when He said we must abide in Him as He abides in us. He is the "Temple" we live within, our Sanctuary. In this place His promise comes true; no wicked plan formed against us will succeed. They are all unauthorized. They have no authority. He who is the final Authority gives us victory over them all.

To whose authority have we yielded to in our lives? To that which has no real authority over those who are His, yet defeat us just the same? Or to Him who is the One and only Authority; Christ the King? The time has come for the King to reign. Does He? We have only one hope; stay near the King. Stay IN the King. Abide.

Blessings,
Pastor O