A New Power Takes Possession

When anyone surrenders to Christ, a new power takes possession of the heart. A change takes place that we can never accomplish for ourselves. The life that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a world that has revolted, and He intends no authority to rule in it but His own. A life that heaven’s agencies keep in this way cannot be conquered by Satan’s assaults.HH 145.5

But unless we yield ourselves to the control of Christ, the wicked one will dominate us. It is not necessary to choose the kingdom of darkness deliberately in order to come under its rule. We can simply neglect to unite ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not cooperate with heavenly agencies, Satan will make the heart his home. The only defense against evil is to have Christ living in the heart through faith in His righteousness. If we are not vitally connected with God, we can never resist self-love and temptation to sin. We may leave off bad habits for a time, but without moment-by-moment surrender to Christ and a continual relationship with Him, we are at the mercy of the enemy and will do what he says in the end.HH 145.6

“The last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” There are none so hardened as those who have scorned the invitations of mercy. The most common evidence of the sin against the Holy Spirit is in persistently ignoring Heaven’s invitation to repent.HH 146.1

In rejecting Christ, the Jewish people committed the unpardonable sin; and by refusing the invitation of mercy, we may commit the same error. We put the Prince of life to shame before Satan and before the heavenly universe when we refuse to listen to His appointed messengers, and instead listen to people who would draw our hearts away from Christ. As long as people do this, they can find no pardon, and they will finally lose all desire to be reconciled to God.HH 146.2