As led by the Spirit, I give this message through a parable. A dacoit with his gang was robbing the citizens of a kingdom. The dacoit was evil in his ways, causing untold miseries to the people. (The king is likened to God and the Devil to the dacoit in this parable). The citizens pleaded before the King to save them from this evil man. The King then sent His soldiers to teach a lesson to this evil man. The soldiers used to visit the country to guard the citizens. But whenever the evil man saw the soldiers, he used to withdraw from the town into the forests. The soldiers could not pursue the evil man to his hideout in the jungle. It was like the cat and mouse game. Whenever the soldiers were not there, the dacoit with his armed gang used to attack and loot the citizens. This part of the parable speaks of the ministry of the law and the prophets under the Old Covenant. The soldiers of the King are likened to the law and the prophets. I now proceed to explain the second part of this parable. At last, the King took a decision to save His citizens. He himself went to the country from His palace and found the dacoit looting His citizens. Then He took His army, pursued the dacoit to his very hideout, fought with the dacoit and his gang and overpowered them. The King then stripped the dacoit and his gang of their deadly weapons. The weapons of the dacoit were thus completely destroyed by the King. The King afterwards armed His citizens with His whole armor (Eph.6:13). However, the righteous king did not annihilate the dacoit because he wanted his citizens to distinguish the good from the evil. He thought his citizens might not know the goodness of the righteous king in the absence of the unrighteous dacoit.
Why should the citizens be afraid of the unarmed dacoit when they are armed to the teeth by the King? This is what happens today in the kingdom of Christ. The righteous King reigns. The King has armed us with His whole armor (Eph.6:13). The powerless devil roams about His kingdom. We, the armed citizens, are afraid of the unarmed dacoit by believing his lying words. We forget the truth that God hath "delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son (Col.1:13) and that on the Cross, Christ had spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them (Col.2:15). We have to put on the whole armor of God to fight against a defeated foe! Use the God-given authority against the powerless enemy in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Parable of a beggar in the King's palace
"Son of man, eat that thou findest, eat this roll…Cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowls with this roll that I give thee….." (Eze.3:1-3). A king has brought a beggar to his palace and made him a prince. The king has clothed him with the princely apparel, and has set before him delicious food. But the beggar looks at the food and smells it. But he goes away hungry. What will you think of this beggar? You will certainly scorn him or call him a fool. This is what happens today. God has made us princes in the kingdom of Christ. We have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ. God has given us His precious Word for our spiritual food. These days, we have the great privilege of receiving many messages of God from His many servants in our Inboxes or of reading the same on many Christian web-sites. But we do not read them prayerfully and diligently. We just "browse" through these precious messages and then delete the same from our Inboxes. After some time, we tend to completely forget what we have read in those messages. We allow the wicked one to take away from our hearts what is sown therein.
We are supposed to meditate on these messages and appropriate the words of prophecy for our life or for our ministry. But we simply delete these messages. At times, we send replies to the senders of these messages thanking them for such messages. But, at the same time, we do not "eat" these messages. This is like looking at the delicious food and smelling it without eating the same. Hardly we meditate on such messages with the result that we are still babes without spiritual growth and thus spiritually weak.
(By Job Anbalagan)
