Pushing Back Against The Darkness In The Power Of God!

Jude wrote about a departure from the Faith, the Gospel, the Truth of God's Word. Jude’s exhortation to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. The enemy has slipped in among us using, “ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:4. As such, a departure from the Gospel of Jesus Christ began.

This departure or deviation from the Truth of God’s Word has affected the fortification of God's protection around us. To deviate from the Truth is to surrender our defenses. Our defense against Satan, evil, and darkness is the Power of the Truth. Jesus gave us a beautiful example in Matthew 4.

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He fasted for 40 days. Afterward, being hungry, He was tempted by Satan to make stones into bread. Satan used a deviation of the Word to entice Jesus but Christ used the Word to condemn Satan. In successive attempts by Satan, Jesus used the Word to defeat Satan in these encounters. “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

I visualize a departure from the Truth in this way. Suppose you are building a stone wall and the stones have mortar joints. You are almost finished but you are running out of mortar so with the last few bags you add a little extra sand to have enough to finish. What could that hurt? It still looks fine! The problem is that it weakens the mortar and under the right circumstances the mixture will fail and the stones will fall apart.

That is what has happened in the churches. In an effort to include and please the masses, churches have compromised the Truth, the Faith which was once delivered to the saints. Just as the extra sand weakened the mortar used to set the stone, assimilating the world system into our churches weakens the impact of God's ministry. The Holy Spirit is the driving force of the ministry of Christ. In their weakened state, Satan has taken advantage of the powerlessness in the churches. He has attacked the weakness in their mortar and there is a breach in the wall. Now evil forces come and go at will because there is no power to resist. Why? Because many are relying on man-made theology and man's intellectual ability instead of the power and guidance of the Holy Ghost.

What are we to do? What can we do? We must have the wind of the Holy Spirit to rekindle His flame of fire in the churches. We must recognize where we have left the perfect path and correct our course.  We must confess that we have missed the mark which Christ has established for us. We must come together in repentance and rebuild the wall, stand in the gap and close the breach of God's divine protection around His people. Disobedience must be purged from the Body.

We struggle with our choices because we have chosen our way over God's way. God made provision in the Garden of Creation for every need imaginable in the life of man. Man chose his own way laying aside the provision of God. You can't have God's provision and walk in man's way. God's Truth brings God's Provision! We must get back to God’s Truth and God’s Provision. Then, we can successfully Push Back Against the Darkness in the Power of God!