“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Haggai 2:6-9 NIV
The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty.
What a comforting, yet intimidating statement. It is so awesome to know that the Lord Almighty will bring us up out of our current state and make us greater, but it's also intimidating and even scary to know what goes along with being made greater.
Anytime God does something great in our lives, we can bet our bottom dollar that Satan is going to do something soon after. When we find deliverance, Satan will give us something else to overcome. When we find peace, Satan will bring worry. When we get to do something for God (lead worship, preach, teach, fold chairs, whatever it is) Satan will attack and try to dismantle that work.
Newton says with every action there's a reaction. It's the same way in this chess game with Satan. My favourite chess term is zugswang. Zugswang is when no matter what move your opponent makes, it ultimately ends up with them being checkmated soon after. The opponent has no where to go. They can see that their defeat is upon them. When we accept Christ as Lord of our life, we put Satan in zugswang.
Even though we have Satan in Zugswang, we often give up our pawns to him. Satan knows he has lost, and he wants to steal as much from us as we can. Even though Satan has lost our soul, he still wants to steal our joy, our peace, our testimony, our strength, and anything else he can get from us.
We need to be careful that we don't let our guard down just because we know we have won the game. There are still plays to be lost. There are still pawns to be stolen.
Abba, Father, thank You that we have already won the war. We praise You for the victory that has been declared in our lives. Help us to not let our guards down. There are still plays to be made, Lord.
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A New Transition
SpiritualA New Transition is the next part of the life series that started with Life and Shenanigans. In this we'll walk through what God has in store for the next 96 days before I am set to be in Oregon for YWAM. I can't wait to journey through the next 96...
