Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing your heart so honestly and for wanting to walk in a way that causes the enemy to have no place. That desire for purity and for victory over evil is something God Himself puts in us, and He delights to answer it according to His will.
What you sensed in your former friend was not likely a mysterious substance that can be passed from one person to another. Scripture teaches that true holiness is not an outward appearance or a special quality that some people carry as a permanent charm. We have often made holiness a matter of dress or outward standards, but Jesus taught that what defiles a person comes from within, out of the heart. Holiness is a matter of the heart. It is rightness of character before God, and righteousness, which is rightness of conduct, grows out of it as fruit grows from a root. Without that inward purity, no effort to live rightly can stand, because there is no motive strong enough to sustain it. God says, be holy for I am holy, and we are told to follow peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Jesus also said, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
The Scriptures are also clear that demonic spirits are real, intelligent beings with power to afflict and deceive. They are not vague influences. They spoke to Jesus and begged not to be sent to the place of confinement before their time, and they cried out with loud voices when He cast them out. They will one day be used to gather rulers to oppose Christ at His return, and they already work to control and blind those who give themselves to evil. You cannot hide from them by closing a door or by possessing an object. Their power is spiritual.
Because that is true, the way the enemy flees is not by a quality that becomes an inseparable part of us apart from God, but by our submission to God Himself. Scripture says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. God has delivered us from the hand of our enemy for a purpose, that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.
So my prayer for you is not that God would simply transfer what you felt in another person, but that He would do His deeper work in you. May He establish your heart unblameable in holiness before Him, make you pure even as He is pure, and keep you walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ. As you walk in that purity, in honesty and love for Him, keeping your life clean before Him and watching over your heart, you will find that you are able to stand and to resist, and the enemy must flee, not because of something you possess in yourself, but because Christ dwells in you and you belong to Him.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ I bring this dear one before You. You know the hunger for a clean heart and for victory over the enemy. Do Your work of holiness within, cleanse the heart, create right character, and let right conduct flow from it. Teach this one to submit daily to You, to love what You love and turn from what You hate, to follow peace and to pursue purity. Keep this one in Christ, covered by His blood, filled with Your Spirit, and established in holiness until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant grace to serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of life. Amen.
What you sensed in your former friend was not likely a mysterious substance that can be passed from one person to another. Scripture teaches that true holiness is not an outward appearance or a special quality that some people carry as a permanent charm. We have often made holiness a matter of dress or outward standards, but Jesus taught that what defiles a person comes from within, out of the heart. Holiness is a matter of the heart. It is rightness of character before God, and righteousness, which is rightness of conduct, grows out of it as fruit grows from a root. Without that inward purity, no effort to live rightly can stand, because there is no motive strong enough to sustain it. God says, be holy for I am holy, and we are told to follow peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Jesus also said, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
The Scriptures are also clear that demonic spirits are real, intelligent beings with power to afflict and deceive. They are not vague influences. They spoke to Jesus and begged not to be sent to the place of confinement before their time, and they cried out with loud voices when He cast them out. They will one day be used to gather rulers to oppose Christ at His return, and they already work to control and blind those who give themselves to evil. You cannot hide from them by closing a door or by possessing an object. Their power is spiritual.
Because that is true, the way the enemy flees is not by a quality that becomes an inseparable part of us apart from God, but by our submission to God Himself. Scripture says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. God has delivered us from the hand of our enemy for a purpose, that we might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.
So my prayer for you is not that God would simply transfer what you felt in another person, but that He would do His deeper work in you. May He establish your heart unblameable in holiness before Him, make you pure even as He is pure, and keep you walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ. As you walk in that purity, in honesty and love for Him, keeping your life clean before Him and watching over your heart, you will find that you are able to stand and to resist, and the enemy must flee, not because of something you possess in yourself, but because Christ dwells in you and you belong to Him.
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ I bring this dear one before You. You know the hunger for a clean heart and for victory over the enemy. Do Your work of holiness within, cleanse the heart, create right character, and let right conduct flow from it. Teach this one to submit daily to You, to love what You love and turn from what You hate, to follow peace and to pursue purity. Keep this one in Christ, covered by His blood, filled with Your Spirit, and established in holiness until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant grace to serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of life. Amen.
