God's Reactions to Man's Defections # 18

The Overcomer (continued)

The Supreme Effort of satan (continued)

But, ah, the Lord never recognized those rights - just as Mordecai refused to recognize the right of Haman. This is one of the most beautiful things in the Book of Esther. Here is Haman claiming to be somebody; he has gained eminence, and everybody is bowing to him. But Mordecai refuses to recognize any of his glory, and ignores it all. And you remember Haman's story to his family. "I am a great man; I have much goods, many children: but what is the good of it all if this one man will not recognize me?" (Esther 5:9-13). It is a foreshadowing. There is One Who counts more than all the rest, and until He can be captured or got out of the way the enemy's fullness is divided. That One will not recognize satan's rights and That One is destined to bring about his doom.

The Lord Jesus met that all the way through, refusing to attribute to satan one atom of right in this universe. He was out to challenge that, to secure all the rights for God in His own Person, and to come to the Throne Himself with those rights. And when He has done it we see the same thing going on with the Church. It is still the Church's great issue: the worshipers and the worshiped, and the place or the no-place of the enemy. We shall deal with that when we come to speak of the Church.

Now, only the Holy Spirit, in the power of the victorious Christ and by virtue of His shed Blood, can meet that challenge. We do not talk glibly, lightly, frivolously, about this thing. We view the ultimate issue with joy and exultation, but we recognize that it is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). And if the Lord Jesus Himself needed that it should be through the Eternal Spirit that this thing was wrought out, oh, how much more do we! How much more do we today! We should not rush into this battle; we recognize that nothing but the mighty energizing of the Holy Spirit could meet this great issue and challenge. But we recognize also with confidence that the Holy Spirit is the Minister of the Victorious Christ, and that His very advent is on the ground of that victory, to work that victory out in the universe; and we thank God for it. Why has the Holy Spirit come? Oh! not that we might have blessings and what we call power and influence and opportunity and service. No, He has come as Representative and Agent of the Christ, Who has secured the rights of God in His own Person. To bring about the recognition and realization of those rights in this earth - that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 19)