The spiritual warfare of the hour we are living in is no different than what Patrick and his disciples faced. It might be worse because of the lateness of the hour, and it can be withering when you are under it. In those desolate moments, when my heart feels abandoned by God and I want to cry out, Where are you, God? Why aren’t you doing something? I catch myself and protect my heart like a breastplate by declaring that he has intervened for us in the mightiest and most powerful of all ways.

God has intervened for us with such thorough and everlasting victory in the work of Jesus Christ—his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension.

I don’t think most postmoderns understand this, or they feel far from it, but the mystic heart runs to take refuge here, in the fact that we have already been included in the Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4–6)

What greater fortress could we ask for than this? What greater deliverance? A new life, a new identity, situated with Christ right now in the heavens, in his authority? Father, thank you! Thank you, God! We take refuge in it! Show us how to actively participate in it!

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