Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 086. "On the Ground of the Blood."

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 086. "On the Ground of the Blood."



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 086. "On the Ground of the Blood."

Other Subjects in this Topic:

"On the Ground of the Blood."

And now we want to talk a bit on the other side—our fighting tactics. What are the true tactics which this enemy of ours fears and cannot resist. There will be a little repetition here of what has been said before. But repetition is the law of deep and lasting impression.

First of all must come that great statement made of Michael's fight and victory in John's Revelation. "They overcame him on the ground of the blood of the Lamb." (Rev_12:11.) We cannot get beyond that. The enemy is the same, the fight the same, and the means of victory the same too. It was by the shedding of His own blood that our Lord Jesus Himself defeated the enemy. It is only by that same precious blood that we can get victory too.

This seems like strange fighting, not spear and sword, not gun-cotton and powder but—a Name, the Name of Jesus; a fact, the fact that He gave His blood for us. They overcame on the ground of the blood of the Lamb; so may we. And only so can we. There must be the daily pleading of the power of the blood, the claiming of its redeeming power from all the power of the enemy. In the thick of the hardest fighting that blood-red banner persistently flung out will rout this foe. We never get beyond the need of claiming the power of that blood.

Then the second chapter in our book of tactics must be this; habitual surrender to the mastery of our Lord Jesus. Only so can there be the fighting that wins. Anything else is letting the enemy within the lines. That surrender must be full and sane and sensible; it must be rhythmic with the glad music of our hearts. It must be habitual, as habitual as breathing.

It must cover the bodily habits, the mental life, the social contacts, the friendships, the business relations and methods, and even that strangely clinging, subtle stuff called money. A glad cheery yielding of the whole life to the mastery of the Lord Jesus, this is splendid fighting tactics, and irresistible. But anything less means loss of power for us, and gain of power by our foe.

Then there is a daily prayer that our Victor has given us to use—"deliver us from the evil one." It is striking that that is one of the few petitions in the Lord's prayer. It is to be repeated daily, as the language of the prayer makes clear. The old reading is, "deliver us from evil," but it seems clearly to be the fuller meaning of the Master's language to make it personal—"the evil one." And the word "deliver" has all the force of the word "rescue." Our Master teaches us daily to bow and pray, "rescue me from the evil one." It is most significant.

I know a thoughtful man who begins the day by quietly slipping his hands over his body from head down, slowly repeating this prayer, "deliver me from the evil one, and breathe in afresh Thy own life, in Jesus' great Name." That is good fighting tactics. It is insisting on all the powers of our Victor's victory, in the stress and thick of life's need.