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Like today, through the grace of God many in Christ’s day were
set free from evil spirits that controlled their being. They rejoiced
in the love of God, but then they did not surrender themselves to
God daily to allow Christ to live in the heart. When the evil spirit
returned, with “seven other spirits more wicked than himself,” they
were completely dominated by the power of evil.
A New Power Takes Possession
When anyone surrenders to Christ, a new power takes possession
of the heart. A change takes place that we can never accomplish
for ourselves. The life that is yielded to Christ becomes His own
fortress, which He holds in a world that has revolted, and He intends
no authority to rule in it but His own. A life that heaven’s agencies
keep in this way cannot be conquered by Satan’s assaults.
But unless we yield ourselves to the control of Christ, the wicked
one will dominate us. It is not necessary to choose the kingdom
of darkness deliberately in order to come under its rule. We can
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simply neglect to unite ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we
do not cooperate with heavenly agencies, Satan will make the heart
his home. The only defense against evil is to have Christ living in
the heart through faith in His righteousness. If we are not vitally
connected with God, we can never resist self-love and temptation to
sin. We may leave off bad habits for a time, but without momentby-
moment surrender to Christ and a continual relationship with Him,
we are at the mercy of the enemy and will do what he says in the
end.
“The last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it
also be with this wicked generation.” There are none so hardened as
those who have scorned the invitations of mercy. The most common
evidence of the sin against the Holy Spirit is in persistently ignoring
Heaven’s invitation to repent.
In rejecting Christ, the Jewish people committed the unpardon-
able sin; and by refusing the invitation of mercy, we may commit
the same error. We put the Prince of life to shame before Satan
and before the heavenly universe when we refuse to listen to His
appointed messengers, and instead listen to people who would draw
our hearts away from Christ. As long as people do this, they can