Is it possible the enemy of this world knows who we are better than we do? His goal is to keep us from discovering the real power of God's presence that lies within us as believers.
I recently watched the original Jungle Book movie with my grandson. I consider it to be one of my favorite childhood movies and have seen it multiple times as an adult with my children and grandchildren.
In the movie, the little boy, Mowgli has an enemy named Shere Khan, who is the chief among tigers. One of Mowgli’s friends warns him that Shere Khan hates man and has sworn to kill him before he grows up and becomes mature. Throughout the movie, Mowgli’s friends try to get him to go to the man village to escape the tiger, but he doesn’t want to go and ends up wandering the jungle alone. While wandering, he makes several acquaintances. Some want to befriend him, some want to use him for what they can get out of him, some want to party and have a good time with him, and some want him dead. Eventually, Mowgli comes in contact with Shere Khan himself. Shere Khan notices Mowgli isn’t afraid of him and their conversation goes like this:
Shere Khan: "Could it be possible you don’t know who I am?"
Mowgli: "I know who you are alright."
Shere Khan: "Everyone runs from me."
Mowgli: "You don’t scare me!"
A few minutes later we find out the reason Shere Khan wants Mowgli dead before he becomes a man is because man can bring fire to the jungle and consume everything in its path.
If you’ve been reading with me for any time, you know God can speak to me through the simplest things, and this movie was no different. In fact, you might already be on the same page with me!
Along life's journey we encounter those that want to use us, turn our attention in other directions and as believers, we have an enemy that hates us and is ultimately out to destroy us. He doesn’t want us to grow and become mature in our walk with Christ. He wants us to be afraid of him and tries to intimidate and scare us when we are young; be it young in age and/or spiritual maturity. He uses those tactics even when we are mature, because he knows IF WE KNOW WHO WE ARE the way he knows who we are, we would realize he is actually afraid of us!
When the bible speaks about fire, it is generally relating to some manifestation of God’s presence or glory. As children of God, His spirit dwells in us, which means we carry His presence with us wherever we go. In essence our enemy, the devil, has the same fear of us as Shere Khan had of Mowgli. He wants to intimidate us and cause us to believe we should be afraid of him, because he knows the real truth. He knows we’re the ones that carry the true power, the fire, the thing he is after and is trying to keep from igniting. He knows we have the ability to bring that fire, the presence of God, to the world and pull others out of darkness and out of his grasp. When we take our stand in faith and confidence as Mowgli did and declare, “You don’t scare me!”, there is nothing that can stop us, as the body of Christ, from igniting the fire and presence of God in the earth!
Scripture:
I Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) – “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Isaiah 6:3 (ESV) - "And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!'"
Acts 1:8 (ESV) - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Prayer
Lord, ignite the fire of God within me to carry the truth of your word to the parts of the world I come in contact with. May we see the whole earth filled with your glory and with the fire of Your presence.
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