“When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.” (Luke 4:13-14)
“Kronos – the metallic vampire stalking the earth, draining the earth of all its energy resources.” Some are old enough to remember the 1957 science fiction classic, Kronos, which tells the story of a huge saucer-shaped meteor that’s on a collision course with earth. To protect the earth the U.S. Army fires nuclear-armed guided missiles to intercept the alien invader before it reaches our planet. The “meteor” falls safely into the sea – or so the unsuspecting world thinks.
Actually, the earth has unwittingly given this meteor, which is actually an alien probe, reason to “stay a little longer” on earth. For this alien probe named Kronos has been sent from another world to drain other planets of all their energy and bring it back to its own energy-exhausted planet. And, not only do the nuclear missiles fail to destroy Kronos, they have empowered it to grow even larger and transform itself into a towering robot that roams the earth – sucking all the energy from power plants, cities, and any weapons used against it.
This ability to absorb the power of weapons used against it makes Kronos unconquerable. And when the U.S. uses atomic and hydrogen bombs against it, these only serve as a fantastic growth medium for this “Metallic Vampire.”
In Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness we read that He went into the conflict filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). How did He come out of His battle with Satan? Luke tells us that He came forth “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). In other words, Jesus came out of the battle stronger than when He went in. Jesus experienced the “Kronos Effect.”
It’s the same with the believer in Jesus. We also experience the “Kronos Effect.” The battles make us stronger, not weaker. Though we expect spiritual conflict to have a debilitating effect on us, God uses it to have the opposite effect. Everything Satan and his demons throw at us only forces us to draw more deeply upon God’s strength. Thus, we come out of the battle far stronger and wiser than we went into it. It must be demoralizing to the devil to know that each time He attacks us, he grows weaker while we grow stronger. Yes, even in tribulation, persecution, and sword, “in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
REFLECTION
- If spiritual conflict and trials make us stronger and wiser, should we dread them?
- Under what conditions can we lose this battle? By becoming like our enemy?
- Jesus was victorious – without returning temptation for temptation or evil for evil.