“Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake thyself from the dust …” (Isa 51:1-2, ASV)
We have in the past referred to the fact that the book of Revelation describes the Bride of Yahshua as “the New Jerusalem” (Rev 21:2). In the Scripture quoted above it is written about Jerusalem and Zion (the other symbol of the Bride), that no ucircumcised or unclean animals would enter, and this should be considered a very important key.
We know that the snake feeds off the dust of our carnal or flesh-like nature (Gen 3:14; Isa 65:25). If he doesn’t eat this, he can’t live! He thus has a feast feeding off those who live in the world who are still under his sway, who walk “according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air”. It is this “spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). In the next verse Paul states that all of us were once on Satan’s menu, as we once “conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind”. It is through your carnal nature that Satan is made manifest. True spirituality would have him starve to death.
In 2 Cor 15:49 (Ampl) Paul aptly maps it out – “And just as we have borne the image [of the man] of dust, so shall we and so let us also bear the image [of the Man] of heaven.” Where we always considered incarnation as “The act of assuming flesh, or of taking a human body and the nature of man; as the incarnation of the Son of God” (Webster’s), we find a reciprocal incarnation here – we receive a Godly nature (2 Pet 1:4)!
The only place in born-again Spirit-filled believers where Satan can gain a foothold, is if we allow him to, through our flesh, gain access to our lives. As we walk in the light (Eph 5:8; 1 John 1:7), and walk in the spirit (Rom 8:4, Gal 5:14 & 25) there is no longer ANY CONDEMNATION (Rom 8:1). Remember – Satan can only condemn you or accuse you. If you walk in the spirit, he has lost his hold on you. (Remember – this does not mean that you do everything right, and never transgress – this is impossible – Rom 7:14-15. It means that you are not missing your purpose – you walk in OBEDIENCE.)
Be aware – Satan works in children of disobedience!
Because Satan knows that Yahweh’s plan can only be fulfilled through the Bride of Christ he hates the Bride (His incarnation – 1 John 3:2). The best way to explain this is at the hand of the magnificent film about the life of Mozart, Amadeus, where Saliere here becomes the symbolic understudy of the Evil One, in his tirades before God about the chosen Mozart (symbolic of the Bride) – “From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You chose for Your instrument … an infantile boy … and give me only the ability to recognize the Incarnation. I will block You. I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature here on earth as for long as I am able. I will ruin Your Incarnation.”
Shake thyself from the dust …
- Sela: Pray the Scripture quoted at the beginning of the text.
- Read: 2 Sam 19-21
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: 2 Sam 19:26. (Tip: Who is Mefiboset, in the light of this teaching?)
