76. How do we have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil?
With watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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The brevity of this answer should not obscure its formational wisdom. We rely on two cooperating pillars for progressing in sanctification to the point that God has, indeed, beaten down Satan under our feet. The first is the Holy Spirit, the gift that Jesus died to secure for all who believe (Gal. 3:2–5, 13–14) and that would faithfully guide and fully empower them to manifest the God-pleasing fruit of holiness, righteousness, and love in their lives (5:16–25). The Holy Spirit is not a theological idea. He is a living, divine Presence to be experienced as he gives us the assurance of our adoption into God’s family and the power to defeat the impulsive urgings of the flesh.
The second is disciplined “watchfulness,” exercised both over our own hearts and actions and one another’s hearts and actions. Both kinds lay at the heart of Wesley’s own program of discipleship and renewal. We are called to be attentive to the stirrings within us, to seize that moment of reflection that separates human beings from animals, and consistently choose to decline acting on those stirrings that we discern come from the world, the flesh, and the devil and to embrace acting on the stirrings of the Holy Spirit. And we are called to be attentive and available to one another in the same regard, to serve as one another’s guardrails on the path of walking in the Spirit. Wesley formed “the people called Methodists” into bands of four or five persons for this very purpose—to watch over one another in love and to bring the social and spiritual support of the family of God to bear on any one brother’s or sister’s contest with the forces that stand between him or her and “that holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
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“Keep watch over each other lest your hearts be weighed down in carousing and drunkenness and life’s daily cares—and that day come down upon you suddenly like a trap! For it will come down upon all those who live upon the face of the whole earth. So be vigilant on every occasion, praying that you might have the power to flee all the things that are about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34–36 DST)
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, being completely sober-minded, set your hope upon the gift being conveyed to you when Jesus Christ will be revealed. Like obedient children, don’t be conformed to the desires that you entertained formerly in your ignorance, but, just as the one who called you is holy, become holy yourselves in all your conduct, because it is written: “You will be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13–16 DST)
Stay alert! Be on the lookout! Your adversary, the Devil, roams about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith! (1 Peter 5:8–9a DST)
See also Deut. 6:16–19; Matt. 24:36–51; 25:1–13; CoF XI
This is an excerpt from Christian Faith and Doctrine: An Annotated Catechism for the Global Methodist Church. Seedbed is pleased to partner with The Global Methodist Church to offer this companion resource to A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church.
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