Not very long ago I watched a 5-minute video on Facebook of the tsunami in Japan that followed their recent earthquakes. The images were disturbing from a human point of view. My lack of personal knowledge of this particular type of catastrophic event kept me in an ignorant place, thinking that if you were a good swimmer you might just have a chance to survive. Moments into the video it became crystal clear to me that the powerful force of the water would have prevented any such thing. The water crushed everything in its path. My heart ached for anyone in its path, knowing death would be the primary result. So vivid images were left indelibly inscribed on my usually optimistic thoughts.
It is no wonder that those very images surfaced today as I read the Word this morning. In 2 Samuel 5 I was reading again the story of David becoming the king of Israel. Almost immediately war was eminent with the Philistines. Not wanting to "do what was good in his own eyes," David sought God's wisdom. Having understood God's response that he should surely go to war and soundly defeat his arch enemy, David did just that. This was what David proclaimed after his unprecedented victory:
"The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters."
I have read that verse so many times; I have used it in counseling others; I have used it to fight spiritual battles in my own life. But this time, the Lord opened my eyes to see what David meant by that, by bringing the pictures of the tsunami to mind. God was using what had been, and still is, so devastating to Japan and the entire world to show me with great clarity what it means for Him to spiritually break through my enemies, the sin in my life that so easily entangles me.
As my mind hit the replay button of a horrible picture of death and destruction, God began to replace the cars,trucks, buildings, boat docks, trash, boards, and yes, even bodies, with pictures of my flesh. The countless cars turning up on end became my self-sufficiency being destroyed just before sinking under the ferocious rising water. The buildings that were crumbling from the force of the ocean against them became my self-reliance. The unidentifiable trash swirling around in the raging water became the words and thoughts that are constant reminders that I am sinful in my innermost being. And then God made the analogy for me.
When the power of the Holy Spirit is unleashed within a surrendered and repentant child of God, the sinful enemies that seek to destroy their spiritual walk are moved up and out of that believer's heart. The Holy Spirit acts as a tsunami and destroys every evil thing in His path. He breaks through the hardest of places in our hearts so that our hearts my be transformed, making them holy and pure. But the believer must come to a place of repentant, sorrowful surrender if he desires this kind of victory over his sins.
Do you want God to display the kind of power that will defeat your persistent sin? Do you really want Him to annihilate your strongholds with His overwhelming force? Your life, lived before others, will be the evidence of how you answered those questions. And then you will be able to say,
"The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters!"
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