The Invisible Forces
“Lord open his eyes that he may see. And behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots round about.”
2 Kings vi. 17.
It is always our peril to think that the visible field reveals all the factors in the campaign. We are bondslaves to our sight, and we are therefore its victims. We make a survey of our circumstances, and we are appalled because the opposing forces appear overwhelming. We do not see the armies of the air, the invisible legions which fill the mountains with their horses and chariots. We leave out the hosts of the Lord.
The invisible army moves with strange quietness. It is as a wind that bloweth where it listeth. Nay, scarcely a wind; more like a breath! The army of the Lord is like an atmosphere. Its destructive ministry is as silent as the frosty air of a calm winter’s night. The grass withereth because the
62 breath of the Lord bloweth upon it!’’ That is all that is needed. And that withering breath is blowing upon all the forces of iniquity. It is the certain minister of dissolution. We can no more avoid it than we can escape the air we breathe. No strategy can outmatch it. No subtlety can dodge it. The evil doer is in God’s withering breath. “Who can stand before His cold?”
On the other hand, the same atmosphere can be as the breath of the spring. It is the “quickening spirit.” It is the secret of mystical energy. In its gracious friendliness ^Hhe leaf shall not wither.” It is the ally of the faithful, and it endows the cause of rectitude with eternal youth.
The Apostle Paul had a great way of calling these invisible forces to mind. Only he did not call them forces: to him they were presences — nay the one Presence, and the breath was just the mighty Personality of the Holy Ghost. And in the blessed assurance of this great fellowship he goes along his ways, exultantly confronting the seemingly impossible. He goes to Ephesus in this alliance of the Spirit. He goes to Corinth. And he impatiently hungers to face the tremendous antagonisms in Rome herself! He craves the biggest tasks in order that he may reveal the more bountifully his resources in grace. He leagued himself with the Lord, and He knew himself to be “mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” And so shall it be with us if we ceaselessly seek the same communion, looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. When we go out upon a righteous way, even though our enemies are massed in fierce hostility, the mountains shall be full of invisible horses and chariots, for the Lord of Hosts shall be with us, the God of Jacob shall be our refuge.