Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Jesus Christ has been resurrected from the dead, and has ascended to heaven where He now functions as a great High Priest. Does He have work to do? If so, does He always have success? And is it possible that there are people on earth who can hinder His work?
We read in the book of Daniel about one of the mightiest of the angels of heaven who was hindered in what he was doing: "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, ... and behold, Michael [another name for Christ], one of the chief princes, came to help me" (10:13).
Christ's work as High Priest is a ministry on the hearts of people. Yes, they can resist Him! He does not force anyone. The king of Persia in Daniel's time is an example; he was working against God, but through the Holy Spirit Christ persuaded him to stop resisting and let God's people go free and return to their homeland.
It could well be that Christ as the world's great High Priest has been pleading with your heart to stop resisting Him, and to let Him lead you to get ready for His second coming. The Lord told Saul of Tarsus that "it is hard for you to kick against the goads" (Acts 26:14). Continual resistance of the Holy Spirit is terribly hard!
Fighting against God wears a person down! We read in Galatians 5:17 that the Holy Spirit "[strives] against the flesh," another name for our sinful nature. Thank God He does! If He leaves us alone, we are lost. Our sinful nature "strives" against the Spirit--true; but it's good news that the Spirit is stronger than the flesh. How do we know that? "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom. 5:20).
What is Jesus Christ doing today? A work which the Bible calls "the cleansing of the sanctuary" (Dan. 8:14), the last work He will do as High Priest before He comes again as "King of kings and Lord of lords." Now is the great cosmic Day of Atonement. That work is His last great effort of grace to woo us away from worldliness and win our hearts to be ready for His coming. He has a big job to do! He's at it 24/7. Don't hinder Him.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: October 22, 2004.
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