Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5.8
August 25, 2026, it is important that we bring every area of our life under Christ’s Lordship. For Him to be able to do the sanctifying work in our souls that He wants to do, He needs our spheres to be watertight. The more open windows that we have, the more likely it is that Christ will not be able to move us forward as quickly as He (and we) would like.
When sin operates in a certain area of our life—whether known or unknown—it creates gaps in our walls through which our adversary can first intercept and then interfere with the wondrous work that Christ is doing within us.
The enemy and his powers like to work undetected and in secret. It is our responsibility, therefore, to make sure that any windows through which they can enter are closed, as this will ensure that his destructive plans are obstructed.
In action this means examining every area of our life—our ministry/ service, our work, our finances, our relationships, our homelife, our food and drink (alcohol), our intellectual/ creative pursuits, our social behavior/ habits, our communications, our engagement with media, our relationship with the internet—against the holiness of God, so as to see whether activity is taking place within them that is hindering Christ and causing us to lose grace.
Doing so is simple and easy. All that is required is that we sit in the presence of God and meditate on these areas (and any others that the Holy Spirit brings to our attention), asking God to show us if there is anything going on within them that is causing us (or others) problems or that is inhibiting our (or others’) growth.
For this process to bear fruit, it is important that we are open to what the Holy Spirit brings to light. If given the opportunity, the Holy Spirit loves to shine His divine searchlight onto our souls, so as to make visible what is hidden within them.
When these secret, unsanctified soul machinations are exposed, we are able to repent and, as a result, find release. Release that renews and rejuvenates our spiritual life and our walk with God.
The Fall darkened our minds and stopped us from being able to perceive ourselves, God and spiritual truth in its fullness. In Eden, we were filled with the Spirit of God: there was no separation between us and Him because there was no sin.
When this divine and sweet unity was broken through our desire for independence from Him, however, the Spirit, whose honorable nature means that He respects our free will, politely evacuated our sphere. The result, however, was that it (and we) were left perilously empty.
This had three important ramifications:
- One, our minds became darkened—we became geared toward darkness (rather than light).
- Two, we lost our spiritual vision—we became blind to spiritual truth and its consequences.
- Three, we became slaves to our newly empty soul’s unresolvable quest to find the fulfillment that it had previously experienced when in unity with God.
This darkness, blindness and emptiness of the soul continues to plague us in our spiritual walks, causing us to desire destruction and sabotage opportunities, misjudge situations and ignore warning signals, and destroy from the inside the blessings that we are given by God, as a result of exploiting them, rather than asking God, to meet our unmet needs (the misuse of Creation).
The Holy Spirit eagerly desires to free us from all of this, by showing us what we are doing wrong and where we are going astray, in order that we can come to our (in the process of being purified) spiritual senses and come to the Father in repentance.
As we repent, the Holy Spirit showers us with His cleansing, healing, enlivening grace, washing away all the mistakes and effects of the missteps, so that we can, again, proceed in peace and purity on the path to holiness.
Amen +
Source: Apocalypse Substack: Sister Anastasia