God Must Have Your Consent, April 8

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped.—Psalm 28:7.HB 117.1

Side by side with the preaching of the gospel, agencies are at work which are but the medium of lying spirits. Many tamper with these merely from curiosity, but seeing evidence of the working of a more than human power, they are lured on and on, until they are controlled by a will stronger than their own. They cannot escape from its mysterious power.HB 117.2

The defenses of their souls are broken down. They have no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God’s word and His Spirit are rejected, no one knows to what depths of degradation they may sink. Secret sin or master passion may hold them captives as helpless as was the demoniac of Capernaum. Yet their condition is not hopeless.HB 117.3

The means by which we can overcome the wicked one is that by which Christ overcame—the power of the word. God does not control our minds without our consent; but if we desire to know and to do His will, His promises are ours: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching.” (John 8:32; 7:17, R.V.) Through faith in these promises, everyone may be delivered from the snares of error and the control of sin.HB 117.4

All of the human race are free to choose what power they will have to rule over them. None have fallen so low, none are so vile, but that they can find deliverance in Christ. The demoniac, in place of prayer, could utter only the words of Satan; yet the heart’s unspoken appeal was heard. No cry from a soul in need, though it fail of utterance in words, will be unheeded. Those who will consent to enter into covenant relation with the God of heaven are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature. They are invited by the Saviour, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” (Isaiah 27:5.) The spirits of darkness will battle for the soul once under their dominion, but angels of God will contend for that soul with prevailing power. The Lord says, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? . . . Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Isaiah 49:24, 25.)—The Desire of Ages, 258, 259.HB 117.5