The Jesus Vaccine

"We're supposed to live in victory. The battle is over. Jesus fought it and won."

THE DEVIL IS LIKE a man with a virus who walks into a room full of people immune to it, and pausing in the middle, he throws his crooked arms wide and says, “Here, catch this.” Jesus defeated the devil. As in, put him back where he should be where authority is concerned. As in, he has none. But he’s that guy with the virus, trying to trick you into believing you’ll catch it in your next breath. Don’t you have the vaccine in your bloodstream? Didn’t the Spirit of God inject you with life? Then whaddup? Why are you doing cross stitch on a checkerboard? Wrong activity on the wrong space.

We are not in a footrace with the devil. We’re not in a race with him at all. We’re standing, remember? The race we’re in, that the apostle Paul mentioned, was to receive the prize of the high calling in Christ. Fancy Christianese for saying the further we run, the higher we climb, the closer we get to perfection, a word in the Bible meaning maturity. We are not running a marathon, barely hanging in there for the finish line. We crossed that through Jesus when we were saved. This isn’t a video game with preprogrammed enemies and a battle to the finish. We are not hanging in here until Jesus gets us out of this mess. We’re supposed to live in victory. The battle is over. Jesus fought it and won. We have both the authority (exousia) over the enemy and the power (dunamis) and ability because of the Spirit of God in us and upon us.

There are two experiences of Him. He comes inside our spirit man, He consumes it into Him, upon salvation. There is no place where He ends and we begin, where we end, and He begins, but we are one, perfectly united. But He also comes upon us, anointing us with His power to “go ye into all the world.” Jesus breathed the Spirit into His disciples on one day, then after they waited for the infilling of the Spirit, some 50-days later, the Spirit came into the room, sounding like a wind and fell on them with fire. God is eternal. His mercies are everlasting. His Word never returns to Him void. So the idea He stopped falling upon men is inaccurate and unscriptural. He is our guarantee of complete victory (Ephesians 1:7). He is why we do not struggle but instead we rest (Hebrews 4:9-11).

“And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:” (John 20:22)

“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)

The devil tries to get us into a war which does not exist. Let’s fight with people over periods and commas. Let’s fight with ourselves over worries for the future (Jesus is our future, btw). Let’s fight with the church over doctrines of demons. Don’t you get It yet? We must change our way of thinking from being in a battle, caused by innumerable people and things, to standing firm in what we are given, the Spirit of God our guide and teacher and pray-er with us. People love to use Romans 8:28 to show that when bad things happen, it is God using them to teach us something. Sigh. Don’t do that. That verse says that no matter what things look like with our natural eyes, our loving God intends to make our life good in spite of it. The Spirit HELPS our infirmities, our weaknesses. That’s the very first thought in the previous verse, verse 26. Then it mentions prayer and God’s will for our good.

He is why we are immune from the devil-virus. You can’t paint black a red house, no more. You can’t give sickness and disease to a man or woman covered in the blood of Christ. We must take a stand, knowing God backs us up. It’s in His Word. No government turmoil or financial collapse can steal our goods and ruin our income. I don’t accept that virus. I’m immune to it. No negative picture of the future rattles us at all. We are in an unshakeable kingdom. If everything else around us falls, if the sounds we hear in the natural are ungodly and in our humanness uncomfortable, in our spirit, we hear God’s voice. Yea, thou we walk through (in one side and out the other) the valley of the shadow of death, we are on the path of righteousness, our soul has been restored, and we are with the Shepherd. There is nothing to fear. No weapon formed against us (virus, disease, injury, debt, children, etc.) will prosper.

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:17)

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom built on God’s methods and principles that can never be shaken, let us rejoice and worship God in harmony with his ways, in reverence and awe,” (Hebrews 12:28, Remedy)

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com