Sunday 12 December 2021

Temptation

In the Gospel of Luke after is recounted Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness after 40 days, is written, “When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
That’s the nature of temptation, it needs to come in at an opportune time when the person is for whatever reasons vulnerable in the spirit. And inevitably this force of temptation does come in if there is an opportune moment! There is another line from the Letter of James, “Resist the devil and he will flee.” In spirit people are actually much stronger than this tempting force, and if one is too strong for it, it flees. A weaker force cannot defeat a stronger one unless the stronger one is somehow brought low. You don’t get weak armies laying siege to much stronger fortresses and armies! That’s not a battle they can win. But if say that stronger kingdom was weakened by things like civil war and famine, and also devious methods of infiltration and corruption from without, then the weaker force can bide its time and wait for an opportune time to come in in whatever sense. 
The two worlds of truth and falseness are both very reliable - background or foreground, they’re always there!

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