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A Spiritual Fight, December 1
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12
.
The Christian life is a warfare. But “we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” In this
conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness we can be successful only
by divine aid. Our finite will must be brought into submission to the will of
the Infinite; the human will must be blended with the divine. This will bring
the Holy Spirit to our aid; and every conquest will tend to the recovery of
God’s purchased possession, to the restoration of His image in the soul.
The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it is His representative.
Through it He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies
for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His
kingdom. Jesus has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among
men. He is the wonderful Counselor, infinite in wisdom and strength; and
if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit, and submit to be molded
by it, we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ
“dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him”
(
Colossians 2:9, 10
).
Never will the human heart know happiness until it is submitted to be
molded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit conforms the renewed soul to the
model, Jesus Christ. Through the influence of the Spirit, enmity against God
is changed into faith and love, and pride into humility. The soul perceives the
beauty of truth, and Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character.
As these changes are effected, angels break out in rapturous song, and God
and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.—
The
Review and Herald, February 10, 1903
.
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