There was once a war that broke out within a kingdom. The king fired his head of security, for this officer had formed a coup in attempts to overthrow the king and to take his place. In this uprising, agents of the rebelling ringleader had organized themselves into their own governmental structure mimicking that of the original kingdom itself.
The rebels dispersed themselves into the capital city amongst the civilians. The noble king of the kingdom had a palace in the capital; at the rear of this palace he had a garden. However, this was no typical garden or menagerie. This was a locked garden with an advanced, computer-coded security system. The entrance to the garden could be unlocked by pressing in a password code.
This garden was a wonder of the modern world. It was filled with nearly every kind of tree, plant, and animal imaginable, covering about 50 square miles. Its infrastructure totaled in the billions of dollars, partially due to the vast security system to keep such a large area free from unwelcome intruders.
The natural resources within that land were known to be priceless, and the boundaries of the garden were marked by four rivers which concealed the most sophisticated gun turrets, weapons technology, and advanced security system on the planet, all hidden from view beneath the surface of those deep, raging waters.
Long story short, the king gave his son one commandment: don’t open the door to the garden to anybody. The king’s officers, trusted friends, government officials, royal blood family, staff, and others could access the garden freely through their own government-issued ID badge or password given to them by the king himself.
Everybody had to go through the king or the king’s established process in order to have free access to the garden. If the son was not sure about something, then he should simply ask his dad, the king.
Every evening, when the king got back from the work of governing his kingdom and meeting the needs of his beloved civilians, the king would come into the garden to walk with his son. There he would teach his son, train him in the affairs of the kingdom, do fun things with him, spend time with him, and listen to his hopes, dreams, aspirations, desires, fears, concerns, and frustrations. If ever his son had a question or was unsure about something, the prince would have the opportunity to ask his dad whenever he came into the garden for their evening stroll.
One day, however, the king’s former head of security came to the entrance of the garden, where he could talk to the prince freely from the other side of the invisible fence (the world’s most advanced security system). This man asked the king’s son if he would put in the code to open up the door for him, as he had forgotten his government-issued ID.
The young prince informed the man that he could not do that, for it would violate his father (the king’s) orders and the legal policies of the kingdom. Rather, the man would have to go retrieve his ID or to go find, contact, or simply wait for the king in order to be re-granted access to the garden.
However, the head of security kept trying to reason with the son. This man asked the king’s son if he could let him in on a little secret. The former head of security tried to convince the son that his father did not have his best interests in mind.
According to this knowledgeable man, there were some kingdom policies that the king enacted that were not in the best interests of the kingdom, but that were put in place by the king selfishly to consolidate his own power, rather than sharing the land’s best resources with the people.
Furthermore, the man told the king’s son that his dad was keeping him as a prisoner in the palace garden, that the king was a fearful control-freak who didn’t want the son to experience the true freedom of all that was available for the son to experience outside the confines of the garden.
The expert security officer convinced the son that if he would let him into the garden, then he would let him in on all his insider secrets to attaining true power in the kingdom. For this head of security would teach the prince everything he knew from being in the king’s trusted inner circle.
The son put in the computer code and let the man in. Now the leader of the rebel forces had gained access to the son in the garden.
Questions for reflection:
Did the former head of security truly have the son’s best interests in mind?
How could the head of security’s insider secrets give the son such great power and authority, when the man didn’t even have the power and authority to get himself full access into the garden?
Why did the man have to deceive the son or to get the son’s permission in order to gain access to the garden (or to the son’s life)?
When the son agreed with the former head of security, how did that affect the son’s safety or leave him vulnerable to the will of the rebel leader?
Didn’t the son already have great power and authority as future heir to the throne?
As heir to the throne, wouldn’t the prince have been better off trusting his dad instead of trying to take short-cuts to the throne?
If the son simply waited a couple hours for his dad to arrive, how might that have helped him to avoid a foolish decision?
Who could better prepare the son to become a proper, more successful king someday: his dad (who is already the king), or the head of security who got fired by the king?
Questions for deeper reflection:
In your own life, how have you been tempted to believe that God does not have your best interests in mind?
How have you been tempted to find power, authority, acceptance, love, peace of mind, a sense of stability, or pleasure apart from God?
If you have submitted your life to Jesus Christ as your King, Master, and Savior, then what do you already have available to you as a child of God or co-heir with Jesus Christ?
If you truly understand what benefits you have been freely given by God through your connection with Jesus, then how does that empower you to successfully resist temptation to try to find your acceptance, power, pleasure, peace, and love through spiritually illegal means or ways (sin)?
In what ways have you given your adversary (the devil) a legal right to access your life? Are there any areas of fear, bitterness, unforgiveness, unbelief, rebellion, doubt, complaining, etc. that you need to renounce and to replace with God’s truth?
What specific truth from God’s Word will you cling to and make a part of your life today so that it will make you free from the lies of your enemy? (see John 8:31ff)
Who is a better authority to train us how to “reign in life”? Jesus, or the father of lies?
What steps can we take to connect more deeply with Jesus and to make His words the standard for our lives?
If the son had waited just a couple more hours for his dad to arrive, he could have avoided a terrible mistake. How can “waiting on the Lord” by taking a break to go to His Word and to communicate with Him about what He says help us to avoid making terrible decisions or from “falling into sin”? See Psalm 119:11.
If you would like to discover how to enter into a personal relationship with God, click the link to learn the “Four Spiritual Laws for Experiencing Joy.”
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