Fly the Flag
by Malcolm Wood
Recently I was reminded of a song we used to sing years ago which went like this: ‘Let the flag fly high from the castle of my heart … for the King is in residence there’.
I understand that this chorus was written by someone who was visiting England for the first time and had been shown Buckingham Palace and been told how the Royal Standard is always flown over the palace to indicate that the Queen is in residence there at that time.
The challenge of the song seems to me to be twofold a) Is King Jesus in residence in our heart? b) Is His presence and rule over our life evident for all to see?
When we come to the point of acknowledging our need of Jesus in our lives and ask Him to come into our hearts and take control of our lives, that’s exactly what He wants to do, to take control.
Perhaps for so many that’s the difficult bit. Asking Him in is one thing, but submitting to His rule and authority over our lives is a different matter! We easily say ‘Lord’, and that’s who He is, but allowing Him to exercise His Lordship in controlling our lives in every area is so often the big challenge.
The Scripture makes it clear that, when we ask Christ Jesus into our lives, we’re born again, we become a ‘new creation’ and have the Spirit of God in our lives. It’s only as we allow His spirit to empower us and, stage by stage, transform us into His image that we’ll become more like Him. And as we get to know Him more, and love Him more, submitting to Him and His authority will become less of a challenge, as our desire will be to please Him.
As we grow more like Him our thoughts, words, actions, attitudes, and everything about us will change, and people will begin to recognise that King Jesus is indeed resident in our life.
The Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Christians at Ephesus was that they would also experience this transformation in their lives. He wrote ‘I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and make you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all of God`s people should, how wide, how long, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that come from God’ (Ephesians 3:15-19).
Prayer: Let it be seen that with thee I have been, Jesus, my Lord and my Saviour; Let it be known I am truly Thine own, By all my speech and behaviour. Amen. (A.E. Rennix. CSSM Choruses)
Malcolm Wood and his wife Anna became part of the Ellel family as House Managers at Ellel Grange in 1990. Since then they have been involved with many aspects of the developing Ministry. From 2001 until 2015 they were Directors of Ellel Scotland where they hosted several International Schools and Operation Blairmore and helped pioneer the exciting Creative Inspiration Weeks. They have three sons.
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