(Psalms 34, Romans 13:2, Acts 7:51, 1 Samuel 13:14)
Resisting God is always a deliberate and consistent act of disobeying, rejecting or not yielding to Him.
Resisting the Lord puts us in rebellion against our Lord. It puts us in the stance of enemies against God. It makes us become God’s enemies. For as long as we are resisting Him, we are rebelling against Him. Whoever resist the Lord will encounter His Wrath and fall into His judgment. Whoever resists Him to the point of wrath and judgment will always have a scar of defeat for remembering that “this happened when I resisted God to the point of wrath and judgment”. This is if it has not gotten to the point of total destruction of the body (physical death) or of the body, spirit and soul (damnation).
The Lord does not deny those that cannot deny Him. He does not fail those who have faith in Him. Those who trust in Him cannot be put to shame. Even if enemies plot shame for them it becomes glory for them.
The Lord reveals His secret to those who fear Him. He manifests His power to those who trust in His name.
However, what can make us resist God?
1) Pride
However, the Lord resist the proud but honours the humble. Pride is one of the reasons why we can see ourselves resisting the Lord while will do not actually want to do so. When the Lord gives us certain assignment that will hurt our ego or self-respect, we would prefer to disobey the Lord than hurt our ego or self-respect. Faithfulness to the Lord portrays us weak for all glory to be ascribed to God. Most of our yielding to God is to remove all self-glory, self-righteousness, self-respect etc. In other words, if we are not ready to forgo all these, we cannot yield faithfully to our Lord and Saviour. When we might have yielded to Christ remaking us, we will not see them again as nonsense that should not be done to us, instead we will see them as vanity. A body crucified at the cross is broken by Jesus and sees all things that tries to belittle, abuse or mock them not as they appear but as vanity. When these are done against us, we would be prompted by the Holy Spirit that they are vanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that mockery is vanity, abuse is vanity, to belittle you is vanity etc. So many of these vain things are the weapons that threatens or attacks our ego and self-respect. So when we approach the cross of our Lord Jesus and we submit at His feet He removes the heart of pride which belongs to the devil and will replace it with the heart of humility which is from Him. Then we become free from every cobweb of sin pride can entangle us with.
2) Attachment to excesses of life
Been attracted or attached to the excesses of life is also one of the reasons we can resist God. When we get obsessed with pleasure, there are many things the Lord will be telling us but we will not yield to because we think they will be against our pleasure. However, to someone who has been crucified to Christ, pleasure is vanity. To him, to be attached to pleasure is to deny the rugged cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. So, being obsessed with pleasure, attraction or attachment to the excesses of life will make us resist the Lord to the point of rebellion while still thinking that it is a pleasant thing to do.
3) Spirit of lie, deceit and disobedience
This is been possessed with the evil spirit of lying, deceit and disobedience because we opened an access to it. The lying, deceit or disobedience is controlled by the evil spirit while making us the instrument. Our fault here is that we must have given the evil spirit the access and avenue before it can possess us. In this state it becomes the person’s lifestyle to lie, deceive or disobey. In fact, to such person to lie, deceive or disobey seems easier than to be straightforward and honest. Lying, deceiving or disobeying becomes a spontaneous act because it no longer the person in control but the evil spirit inside him or her. So, this put the person in constant opposition to God. And the person is not always straightforward and honest with the Lord.
4) Resisting those authourity God constituted
When we resist any authourity that represent God or God’s will, we are resisting God Himself. These authorities starts from those in our homes (parents, elderly ones), to work, schools, church, society etc. If they are even not in the way of the Lord we must seek for God’s wisdom for guidance so that we will be blameless before all and before God. It is only then we are free from the sin of being in resistance against God.
To save ourselves from every manner of resisting God will must sincerely, genuinely and faithfully yield to this:
SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE TO GOD.
RESIST THE DEVIL,
AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. (James 4:7)
Therefore beloved, let us always ask the Lord to reveal to us who we are in Him and whatever in us that can put us in resistance against Him.
Prayer Points
1) Lord Jesus, put in me the eternal thirst for You.
2) Lord Jesus, the Shepherd of my soul, lead me along the path of righteousness.
3) Holy Spirit, deliver me from every spirit that resists (rebels against) You or Your will, in Jesus name.
4) Father give me the grace to serve You faithfully as the child after Your heart (Acts 13:22).
5) Lord, deliver me from every secret sin, in Jesus name.