Subtle Dependence

In looking at the word “subtle” in the dictionary you immediately see words describing it like; clever, devious, elusive, etc. Whenever I see these words they conjure up thoughts of our enemy’s tactics as described by Moses in his description of the snake in the Garden of Eden. We all know about the word “dependence” and how it can be really good for us as in “dependence on God”, or really bad for us as in “dependence on alcohol or drugs”. But what about those “subtle dependencies”, the ones that aren’t obvious for anyone to see, how do they come into play in the serious times we are facing. We perhaps all know the admonition of the Lord in Proverbs;

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight (emphasis added)

but how does this apply in the subtleties of life, and how can the enemy get an advantage over us in regard to “standing firm”? Since I am convinced that there are very few “mysteries” within scripture, I figured that the understanding that I needed had to be there somewhere. In my searching I truly believe the answer is in the word “acknowledge” in the verse above. It is the Hebrew word (yâda‛ yaw-dah' ) and is defined as “to know”. This immediately brought me to the many times in the NT that “knowing” Jesus (ginōskō) is way different than “knowing about” (epistamai) Him. One refers to being genuinely born again….the other just means you know about being born again…. but you ain’t…..excuse my bad English. Both of these words are used in the following verse:

Acts 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" (emphasis added)

Take special note here as to who “knows” Jesus and who simply “knows about” Him. Evil spirits know Jesus intimately enough to understand their fate……they're toast…..and they know it. They also knew who Paul was because of the “Jesus” who was in him in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit. But, they had no respect for those Jews who were trying to cast them out but had no authority to do so. No Jesus, No Holy Spirit indwelling, No authority……..Get it?

To conclude, if we want to have victory over the “subtle dependencies” that the enemy so craftily weaves into our lives, we must “know” this Jesus so intimately that we allow Him to make all of our paths straight through His indwelling Holy Spirit. We must start to ask Him to reveal where we have fallen for these “subtle dependencies” and then accept whatever we have to do to allow Him to make those “paths straight”…….or to “stand firm”. As a practical application of this you could begin to make a list of those subtle dependencies as He reveals them to you and put it somewhere you will see it every day. This may sound a bit foolish but our enemy doesn’t care, he will use whatever means necessary to bring about his will in our lives…..even “the pride of life”. Don’t be too proud to think that you don’t need help in this area. If you do, you have already given in to one of those “subtle dependencies”………I CAN DO IT MYSELF, I DON’T NEED ANY HELP!