What a special position we have in Christ as a believer. All too often we lose sight of the riches of His grace that was given to us, and we tend to focus in on the attacks of the enemy within our body and emotions. We often lose sight of the fact that when we became born-again, we entered into a state of being "alive" spiritually, as we became united with Christ, who is the "life." (John 14:6)

Not only have we become untied with Christ, but we have been given such great authority to use right here on the Earth, the right to use the Name of Jesus. We have become more than conquerors through Him. Yes, these precious promises are ours! But, there is an enemy out there who is continually picking away at us, lurking, prowling "as" a roaring lion seeking whom he "may" devour (1 Peter 5:8). The Bible also gives us some insight into our "struggles" as it informs us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this dark age, and against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) Thank God we have been given authority over the enemy! - Luke 10:19

The "fruit" that is brought forth by these demonic forces is told to us in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy." The fruit that Jesus brings forth is told to us in the rest of that same verse, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

One commentator says that the word "life" (zoe- Greek) here in this verse speaks of the highest and best of which Christ is. Think of that. The desire of the Lord Jesus Christ is to give to us an abundance of the highest and best of which He is. Yes, that's His desire for you right now! We need to come to the place in our Christian walk that we insist upon the fruit of "life" that is ours through the Lord Jesus Christ, and refuse to settle for anything less! Make up your mind right now that you will not be denied!

Do not allow turmoil, confusion, anxiety, hurts and wounds of the past, or fear of the future to have dominion or Lordship over you. These have no place in the life of the believer. I am not saying that we deny that these exist, and that they won't come upon us from time to time, however we can sure deny them the right to stay!

I want to give you a simple and much overlooked "tool" to overcoming these attacks, and that is that you begin to enter in to a deeper realm of the presence of God. The word tells us to be "filled" with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) and the tense in the Greek speaks of a continuous, day by day filling.

Look at Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law!" Look at that! There is no law that can stand against the fruit of the Spirit - all of the things that we need in our everyday lives, all of the things we desire are there in the Spirit's presence. The fruit of the Spirit is the "personality" of the Holy Spirit - it's who He is! He longs to fellowship with you and saturate your entire being with the wonderful benefits of this grace.

When we begin to enter into this presence, spending time with Him, this fruit begins to manifest in us and through us! You cannot enter into His presence and come away empty. Fear, anxiety, depression, anger, hurts, wounds, emptiness, loneliness, bad-habits, cannot stand in the presence of God! They simply cannot continue there - they must all fall away!

There is healing in His presence, peace in His presence, answers in His presence, joy - unspeakable joy in His presence, such wonderful fulfillment. Striving comes to an end in the presence of God. It's there for you, all of this is waiting for you.

We must not experience His wonderful presence only once in awhile, we must learn to enter in and fellowship with Him each and everyday - it's where the victory is! The enemy is totally and completely defeated in the Christian's life that has learned this wonderful truth - to take the time and Practice The Presence!

Dan Downey
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Dan Downey 2000

A great place to start hearing the voice of God is by learning to Journal Through The Word