Wednesday September 11

Ephesians 6:12 – “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. »

Romans 8:37 –« In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

France is a democratic country, a symbol of freedom, which could have turned into a totalitarian state when Hitler wanted to conquer and dominate all of Europe. He came close! This liberation from enemy-occupied France is certainly thanks to key men and women who have made good decisions, but mainly to an extraordinary ALLIANCE between peoples who have collectively given their lives for a common purpose. Even if we do not have to fight against human beings and we are in relative peace today, we are in a spiritual war against Satan and his kingdom, who are fighting against the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Bride, the Church.

The tent about which God encourages His people in Isaiah 54 can symbolize our sphere of influence in society, our local church, our family, or ourselves. Our Heavenly Father desires s a mobilised, generous, stable, all-encompassing, influential and loving « tent » that broadens to make way for His life in motion, not a small, petty, fragile, individualistic, uninfluential, wicked « tent » that He can only visit from time to time! The victory in this spiritual battle has already been won by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross! And one of the keys to being effective on earth is the strong alliance or covenant walked out by all its members.

In the tabernacle (the traveling tent which was a place of worship from the exit of Egypt until the 10th century BC), each object had a particular indispensable function; even simple gold staples were needed to tie the carpets together. It was important not to lose one somewhere along the way when it was time to take the tent to another place. God himself had ordered that these rugs be tied together with these staples to form ONE carpet. The rugs can symbolize the ministries of the local church woven together: each of them, well-identified and of a precise number, is individually useful to the service of the body. But it is their connection to one another, forming this whole carpet, capable of receiving the presence and consequently the reign of God, that contributes to the nobility and grandeur of the house. So everyone who comes is sheltered there will be blessed … and any enemy who tries to approach this kind of tent there will be defeated!

Do you consider yourself insignificant like this tiny staple? Or do you feel like a rug that is trampled on? Whatever you are or become, know that your presence and your role in the small things as in the big ones, your words or your inhabited silences, and all of your daily actions are useful, and even necessary, in the hands of the great Weaver, the Holy Spirit, for consolidating the unity of the house of God or of your family. Stay at your post, keep your position, then gain ground, fix your eyes on the great Victory, seek to please God (the Lord of hosts), love and support your brothers, and do « all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. » (Phil. 2:14-16).