Invasion

 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." Ephesians 3:19....."The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. He invades everything....Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life." Oswald Chambers

I think many in the church would like Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, to be Someone who "knows their place." By that I mean someone who respects the boundaries that we set up before Him. Those places that we don't want Him intruding upon. Places we don't want Him to interfere in, change, or remove. Places that we want to remain in control of. We do, consciously or not, very often desire Him to behave as a guest. An honored one for sure, but a guest nonetheless. We may give Him the "best room in the house," but we want Him to stay in that room, or at least not go into certain other rooms. This is what good houseguests do. The Holy Spirit will never be such a guest. He has never been so, and He never will be.

Chambers says that the Holy Spirit invades everything in our lives, and He does. We can deny Him entry, but we cannot keep Him from seeking entry into those places we wish Him to stay out of. He will seek entry in endless ways. He will so work that our conviction over our resistance to Him, our rebellion against Him, becomes an ever greater issue. He will be relentless. Try as we may to ignore Him, He will not be ignored. When Christ comes into our lives, it is not to visit, but to abide. He will never be content to occupy a part of our heart and life. He insists upon having all of them. That's why I like the word "invade" that Chambers uses. He would rather be fully welcomed, but He's prepared to come against all our defenses, most especially the spiritual strongholds that we've allowed the enemy to construct in our lives. Strongholds are lies that we have believed to be true. At the center of these are the lies we've believed about Him. Against these lies He will wage a relentless war. Just as the Father intended that every part of the land He promised to the Israelites be occupied by them, He intends that in every part of our hearts and lives, Christ reigns and lives.

The only thing that could stop the Israelites from having that land was their own rebellion and disobedience, which is what they were in, and what God intended for them never was fully realized. In the same way, only our rebellion and disobedience will keep Him from occupying us as He desires. He will seek full entry, but He will not violate our ability to choose. We can block His entry, and we do. The question for each of us is, where are we doing so today? What are the "rooms" and places you don't want Him to enter, to transform, to yield control of? Have you any idea of what the cost of doing this is and will be to you if you continue?

How blind we are in responding to Him in such a way. We think He wants to take away our freedom. He means to free us from the captivity of those things that we think we "own" but instead, actually own us. We think these places are sources of life that we must have in order to live. He knows that they are in fact sources that work not life, but death in us. They're killing us spiritually, and we don't know it. We think He invades us to exert tyranny over us, but He seeks to lay hold of us that He might bring healing, wholeness, and what He knows to be true Life. Abundant Life. He is the Liberator, come to break all the chains of the Enslaver, but in our blindness, in our believing of the lies of the enemy, we, like those under the boot of the fascist nations of WW 2, have believed the enemies propaganda, and fear Him rather than love Him.

Where is He in His invasion of your life today? Have you ever seen the photos and videos of the invasion fleet of the allies for D-Day in WW2. They were right off the beaches, but not yet on the beaches. Is it like that with you? He's before you, but you have not let Him enter your heart. Or, has He established a beachhead in your heart, but your resistance to Him having any more of your heart than that is stiff. The beachhead is where you wish Him to remain. Or, has He freely advanced in your heart and life, with every stronghold formed against Him falling in consistent fashion? One thing is certain; He has come to invade you. All of you. It's an invasion that brings life out of death, wholeness to crippled lives. light out of darkness. Love out of hate. Joy out of sorrow. Peace out of turmoil. Freedom out of captivity. Who would not desire such a wonderful invasion? Yet, there are those who don't. Are you among them? Why live under the boot when you can live above all things in Him? Why indeed?

Blessings,

Pastor O