Destroying the Works of the Devil

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

I went to the chapel the other day to pray as I was struggling with many things and many people. I was thinking about how Satan has stolen so much from us, about how he has trained us how to think. And the Lord simply said to me;

"My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, but you should pray for them to be."

So I started praying for the thoughts of the Father to be my thoughts. For the word of the Son to be my way, and the actions of the Holy Spirit to proceed from me in deed.

The thoughts, words and actions of the Trinity don't have to be hidden from us. They need to live in us. It's why Saint Paul says to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Though in our limited understanding we may not comprehend God, we can ask for our will to be one with His will. Our thoughts, words and actions to be His.

The Blessed Mother understood this fully. Immersed in daily prayer and total relationship with the Trinity, she was trained to think, speak and act by the Will of God. She housed the Will of God in her womb. She birthed the will of God for the world. As a daughter of the Father, Spouse of the Spirit and Mother of the Son, the Trinity dwelt inside of her. As the Mother of God, holding the Creator in her womb, all of creation was held there to.

This is what God wants for us.

"Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." 2 Peter 1:4

Our God given domain is all of creation, and it is held inside of us when we align ourselves to the Will of God.

It isn't something we earn. It is something we surrender to.

Most of the Apostles didn't fully surrender until after Christ died on the Cross. Up until that point they still had their own thoughts, ideas, words and actions.

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?" John 18:10-11

By the time Jesus ascends, all they are clinging to is love of Him. They hide and pray. They surrender. Jesus has been glorified, He wants to glorify them;

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 18:10-11

He tells them they will do greater things than He does, and they do.

Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's portico. None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them. Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them. Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured. Acts 5:12-16

This is what He wants for us. Walking in our domain by surrendering to the Will of God, he gives us creation.

Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Mark 11:23

When we receive the grace God wants to give us through full surrender we can say to a tree, "bear fruit" and it will. We have so many idols and so much fear though we don't even know how to fully surrender. We will be humbled in this regard.

Many are afraid of what is to come. But God says, "do not be afraid." God's wrath is directed at Satan. He will hand the things of Satan over to destruction. We should want this, because when this happens the Glory He will pour out will be beyond what we can imagine.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

We spend so much time trying to change and control the things out there in the exterior of our lives. Jesus's walk with the Apostles was spent trying to show them how to change the things within themselves. He was teaching abandonment to love. Self-Sacrificing Love has full domain over creation because God dwells there.

It is a Eucharistic Love. A Love of Thanksgiving.

You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,

and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord's renown,

for an everlasting sign,

that will endure forever." Isaiah 55:12-13

Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil. Let Him do this inside of you because He is the Way, and it is more than you can ever imagine for yourself. You will be amazed.

From the office of readings September 11, 2020

And so the bridegroom is one with the Father and one with the bride. Whatever he found in his bride alien to her own nature he took from her and nailed to his cross when he bore her sins and destroyed them on the tree. He received from her and clothed himself in what was hers by nature and gave her what belonged to him as God. He destroyed what was diabolical, took to himself what was human, and conferred on her what was divine.