Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 245
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life Ministries
International
Littleton, Colorado
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I
love the word “focus.” It speaks of and
identifies so much. Michael takes us to
a point of who/what our “focusing” should be on…
DAY 156
Identify
the Enemy
For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
We attended a bullfight in Spain, which, though
it may not be the pinnacle of enjoyable experiences, is nonetheless an
interesting one. Having grown up around a farm, the kill before butchering was
never something I looked forward to. Some would argue that the death of the
bull in a bullfight is as humane as the death in a slaughterhouse. I do know
that in the bullring the beast has his moments of glory, and after watching six
bulls defy the matadors, my admiration for bulls has gone way up. As a child I
was never allowed to touch a bull. When feeding the cows and petting them, the
temptation was always present to likewise pat the bull, but any movement I made
toward that end was met with a strong rebuke from my grandfather. He had hauled
several bulls over the years and seen men gored; he never trusted any bull. The
toros in Spain enter the arena full of attitude, muscle-rippling strength, and
catlike quickness in an impressive show. They look for anything that is moving
and immediately charge with power that is awing to witness; they send every
matador scrambling behind a thick wooden wall, and then they hammer the wall
with their horns. I had never witnessed that in a bull, nor had I seen that
kind of endurance. Nothing about a bullfight is fair; the only way to make it
less fair would be to remove one of the bull’s legs! However, because of the
bull’s strength and superiority, the fight would take hours were the bull not
slowed down. Carrying a spear, a horseman rides in on a heavily padded and
blindfolded horse, and the bull immediately rushes him. The first bull we saw
actually knocked the horse over and was able to gore it, even as the rider,
falling down, drove the spear deep into the bull’s back. Next, four matadors
begin to wear the bull down with a series of charges at pink capes. When the
bull is sufficiently tiring, another matador will come holding two colorful
skewers. He allows the bull to charge him straight on and then jumps sideways,
driving the skewers into the back of the bull. This is repeated three times.
Even at this point the stamina of the bull is incredible. The matador, with his
large red cape, will now come out to work the bull until it finally has its
strength bled out of it, at which time, with an air of satisfaction, the man
draws a sword; the great beast bows its head to hurtle one more time toward the
rag that has given it so much grief, and the matador drives the sword into its
great heart. Some matadors are better at this than others, but ideally, the
bull’s demise is quick, and it drops, immediately dead. The whole exhibition
takes around fifteen minutes.
As I
watched, I could not help but think about our fight against the “rulers,
powers, forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness.”
In Christ, the battle is
won. On the cross
He did not say, “To be continued!” He said, “It is finished.” Like the bull, we in Christ have the superior strength.
However, the bull makes one fatal mistake by thinking the cape, a simple piece
of lifeless rag, is the enemy, the source of its torment and pain! I kept
thinking to myself, If only you would
stop fighting the rag, stop looking down, look up at the head, and move
eighteen inches to the right! The battle would be yours. Even to its dying
breath the bull was eyeing the rag, when it was the matador that was driving the
sword deep into his heart. A
physically superior creature is defeated because of a wrong focus. How
often in our spiritual battles the enemy has our focus on something other than
him; we never pay attention to his ugly head. So many times I have talked to
couples ready to divorce over absolutely nothing but a rag; the enemy has
continually poked at them, making them think that the rag is what is hurting
them. It is not the rag! It is the one behind the rag. Move eighteen inches to
the right, go for the head, and you will see the truth of it. Many times I will stop in the
middle of a situation and just say, “The Lord rebuke you!” I know the issue is
not the issue; there is someone behind the issue, and I want to go for the
head. The believer has
the superior strength, but that will do him no good if his focus is in the
wrong place. So many just bow and let the enemy drive the sword deep
into the heart. There will nearly always be the need for a twenty percent
improvement in any relationship; that provides the rag. Why let the twenty
percent steal the eighty percent of joy? On any given day, you should
immediately be able to say three things that are right about your situation and
about your mate. We need God’s
grace to recognize the head.
Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point Green
– IT, Incredible Truth
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches Pink
– PV, Priceless Victory
In
illustrations like this, I am immediately reminded of Michael’s great
illustration of “the hands.” Left hand (the Left always
represents “evil”) close
to face, the right hand (the
Right always represents “righteousness”/Jesus) is not visible. The FOCUS is on the evil. Switch positions of the hands, and the FOCUS
is on Jesus. When we focus on Christ,
our focus is in the correct place. When
we focus on Christ, and remember the battle is won, IT “is finished.” Amen.
We
Believers have the superior strength (and ANY or ALL resources needed) in Christ. Thank God He makes His grace available to us
to “tap into” His resources!!!
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Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the
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