Uphold Me With Thy Free Spirit

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. (Psalm 51:12)

God’s Spirit and His will are synonymous. Never would they or can they conflict or contradict each other. The Psalmist asks for restoration of the joy in his salvation. This is a big red flag. We should always find joy in being saved, even when our salvation takes us down an unfriendly or unfamiliar path.

Then there is this simple fact that man refuses to understand; God upholds us by His will through His Spirit. But prideful, pompous man demands that he himself has “free” will, thus invalidating what the Psalmist has said. Really? How free is the will that has known God’s will since Moses and yet can’t find the will to do them?

“He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7)

If man has free will, why is it that he has not done God’s will since he became aware of it several millennia ago?  What else could it be than purposeful and premeditated rebellion? What else could it be if he knows God’s will but doesn’t do it?

A reality man must face is that certain things are greater than him. This does not mean that man must always fall victim to the greater force. This is one off the reasons why God gave us the David and Goliath accounting. God made manifest a spiritual principle and demonstrated it through little David, barely a teenager who defeated a seasoned warrior in Goliath who stood over 9 feet tall.

Sin is our Goliath. But do you see the liberty we have through God upholding us with His free Spirit? 

God gives us a righteous foundation in which to secure our footing and stand. Jesus fought against Satan and won with only the truth of God’s word. The truth and righteousness of God was his sure foundation. This is why God has influence over us, to give us truth, holiness, and righteousness in which to stand and fight the unrighteousness. Otherwise we are left naked and bare against a world of iniquity. We can’t win that war on our own.

The scales are tipped in the devil’s favor if God does not uphold His children in this spiritual battle for souls.

Also realize the nature of sin and the devil. Not only was he made a snake due to his cunning and deception, but his name “Devil” means false accuser, slanderer, and “Satan” is defined as the adversary of God that incites apostasy from God and to sin, circumventing men by his wiles.

The devil’s enemy is God and since we are God’s children that are made in His image, the devil has made us his primary target. But he is the father of lies and the master deceiver. The devil rarely if ever attacks head on. While we have this self-image of being a Christian soldier, clad in the finest of armor going out to the battlefield to defeat the devil in a one on one fight, the devil has already poisoned our morning tea.

We don’t know the extent of the devil’s influences on us. We can’t because we still have original sin to contend with which acts as blinders to the devil’s ways.

Without the quickening of our spirit through the Spirit of Christ, we walk this place deaf, dumb, and blind. This is why throughout the Bible we are roused, literally brought out of our spiritual sleep and directed to be sober, to be vigilant, to pray always, to watch, and to stand, and to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:10-11)

We all know that the, “adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). What we must understand is that he is rarely obvious. We don’t see him coming and we don’t see what he is doing until he has accomplished his task.

Jesus is the way.  God’s word is a, “lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105). God has called us and predestined us to Him. This is how God upholds us with His will through Jesus, the way, His light, and His will. Even if we stumble and fall out of the way that God has luminated for us, which is the New Testament definition of sin, we have Christ who has nailed that sin to the cross which pays the debt we created by our fall.

We are a woke through Christ, but we still must endure for, “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

Watch, be sober and persevere.

Bill Hitchcock