- Discerning the enemy’s ways and rejecting them can take a long time and hard experience. Dan Wilt’s lingering reflections on the opening verses of Luke 4 in the Wake Up Call at seedbed.com have given me time to reflect on some of those experiences in my life. And, as we will see later in Luke’s gospel, the satan does not give up even when he strikes out in an inning. He simply waits for an “opportune time,” wearing us down, and shifting his strategy. God may allow the satan’s testing of us, but God knows what His redemptive will is in the long run and He encourages us to hold fast to the faith once given, to trust in Him alone and not worry about the opinions or actions of others.
“Spirit of the Living God
Fall fresh on me
Spirit of the Living God
Fall fresh on me
Melt me,
Mold me.
Fill me,
Use me.
Spirit of the Living God
Fall fresh on me.”
I have been reflecting this week on some recent events….. actually, it is a repetition of some events I have experienced a few times.
Being used.
I was engaged in mentoring someone and after a lengthy time of observing repeated behaviors, I was led me to see that what I was doing was having no apparent favorable impact. It was, it seemed, even counter to what I knew is my call. So I walked away, something I have had to do a handful of times. I had continued even longer than I knew was wise, holding out hope that circumstances would change…. but the change that needed to occur was in the individual, not the circumstances. And it clearly wasn’t happening.
As I have prayed and reflected on that experience, I discovered something I had sensed but had been unable to articulate. Sometimes one has to see and experience the pattern several times before its shape, form and process is revealed.
Suddenly, two weeks after the fact God showed me truth I was ready to hear and see……
about being used.
When God is using me as an instrument of His peace and grace, I feel joy in the process, not resistance, frustration, and being used and abused. His Spirit at work through our ministry will be obvious in the results as gratitude and the fruit of the Spirit begins to root in a student.
When I experience resistance, frustration, and feeling used, even abused, it is not of God….. it is the enemy’s attempt to disrupt, divide, and destroy.
When I invite and submit to God’s melting and molding, I know it can be uncomfortable, even painful. But He gives me the assurance that what is being formed in me is for His glory, my good and others’ gain.
When I experience being used by Him, there is always a confidence and sustaining filling and refilling that comes with it.
When I am resisted, drained, worn down, disrespected, my boundaries violated, attacked, and
exasperated, I know it is the enemy’s assault and it is time to disengage and let God fight the battle Himself or use a “David” or “Esther” He has recruited explicitly for that moment.
As a friend said, this is further development and refining of discernment. The sensitivity to know when the enemy is goading and disrupting versus when God is at work in the process of refining ….. by melting and molding out the dross in me……are two very different ways of experiencing what is occurring and therefore, of responding to it. The better I am able to recognize the difference between the sources and the means each uses, the better I will respond with godly action. God’s Word tells us to flee from the devil, to give the enemy no opportunity and, having done all one can in equipping ourselves with His armor (truth, the righteousness of Christ, assurance of salvation, readiness for the gospel of peace, holding forth His Word that transforms minds and circumcises hearts, and shielded by faith in the goodness and sovereignty of God revealed in Christ) to stand firm in that equipping and God will uphold us and defend us.
On three separate occasions over 30 years of walking with Christ I have been asked explicitly in my spirit by God if I felt abused (not used, but abused!). In all three circumstances I felt I was being used by God. The circumstances were not easy, but I felt His presence and equipping and I persevered in the task. I responded to the question before me with an unequivocal, “No! I am yours, Lord, to be used as you please.”
In the few times I have felt used AND abused by someone, and I sought understanding, guidance and God’s strength and patience to endure, when I did not find Him changing the circumstances or changing my heart toward them, or changing the heart of the oppressor, it was my signal to simply stand firm in His equipping and let God carry out His will in His own way, disengaging from the battle but standing by at “parade rest” to watch what I knew God alone could do.
Sometimes we are used by God. Sometimes we cheer others who are being used by God. But God is never the source of abuse. If that is present, God’s justice and/or vengeance will prevail. I need no longer exert effort against the enemy of God who is resisting and abusing me without recognizing that I am in service to God, not to the enemy of God. And just as God will give one over to her own selfish and unholy desires, I will also.
In having been used by people a few times to the point of abuse and separating myself from them, I have, on occasion, given second or even third chances for one to prove that God has changed their hearts. Fortunately, sometimes God has shown me the way in which He has worked and brought them back to our ministry for additional work. But in just a very few instances, in those second or third efforts it was revealed and confirmed just how entrenched the person was in the lies of the enemy.
I know my boundaries, often put in place by hard won experience and refining. God may allow them to be tested now and again, but God does not trample upon them seeking to crumble them since His hand was surely at work in restoring the walls and gates previously shattered by assaults of the enemy in His own territory.