Now, let’s use an illustration to show how all these courses work and how to protect those who can’ protect themselves. And, let’s see how we can join Jesus in teaching them how to protect themselves.

Our life is like our home; our house is a place where we have a certain amount of control as to who can and cannot enter. We want all of our family members to be able to come and go with few restrictions. So, let’s say we pass out keys to all of them so they can get in.

Suppose one of our family members decides that a non-family member should have a key. Let’s call this non-family member spirituality difficulties.

At first the non-family member conducts themselves in such a way that they gain the whole family’s trust. This is like the experiences of benefits and pleasures we received through those things that got us started down the road to spirituality struggles.

Later it is discovered that important and valuable things are missing around the house. This is like us lossing our freedom which was caused by spirituality issues.

With things being stolen, we will have to come up with a strategy for how to solve this probem. We will need to get all the people in the household together and start dealing with the problem. This is like you going through the strategy courses and laying out a plan for defeating your struggles with spirituality.

The family members represent “right things we need to be constantly allowing to enter into our life.” Jesus is giving us wonderful rights and privileges because we are a child of God, a member of His family, and a citizen in His Kingdom. There are all kinds of things available to us that are much better than anything the world can give us.

The non-family member represents “wrong things, such as spirituality problems, we are regularly allowing to enter into our life.” Now the non-family member has a key; they can enter our life and do things to us that those locked out cannot do. Jesus has to teach us the Bible so we can identify why these things are wrong so we will be willing to give them up. Then Jesus has to teach us and empower us so we can deal with those things WE allowed to come inside us.

Let’s say the non-member (my spirituality issues) has established residency in one of the rooms of the house. That would represent “wrong things that are already in our life.” The non-member and all of their possessions would have to be removed from the house AND their key would have to be taken away from them. That is what Jesus will have to help you do; you will need Jesus to take you through this course so you and Jesus can expel those things that have established residency in your life.

If after being expelled and their key being taken from them, the non-family member, that we are calling spirituality problems, started trying to get into the house through a window (outside pressures to go back to experiencing spirituality difficulties), they would represent “wrong things that are trying to get into our life that we don’t want in there.” Jesus will be teaching you how to not only keep your spirituality problems out, He will be helping you be able to keep all wrong, bad, and evil spiritual issues out.

Let’s assume that the house was too secure (good Spiritual Growth training) for the non-family member (my spirituality struggles) to be able to break in. So, they started trying to bully one of the younger members of the family to let them use their key (Satan working on others trying to trick them into being involved in wrong, bad, and evil things).

Now let’s say, the dad (God) intervenes and stops the non-member, wrong, bad, and evil problems, from bullying the young family member (a new or untrained Christian). That would represent “protecting others who aren’t able to protect themselves.” This is the way spiritual growth is able to help you gain success and victory in your life and freedom from spirituality issues. And, it is your and Jesus’ way for you to protect others who can’t yet protect themselves.

As you look at the above illustration, you can see that Jesus is training you on how to keep unwelcome things from getting into your life and being in your life. He is also training you on how allow good things to flow into your life and stay there. But, Luke 6:38 shows us that God expects us to share our life of Victorious Living with other people. Luke 6:38 (NIV) Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

As you allow Jesus to help you teach others the things in these courses, you are protecting them while they are learning how to protect themselves. When you spend time with a person, they share some of the things they are doing. If you ask Jesus to help you listen to what they are saying, you will get clues about wrong things they are regularly allowing to come into their life. This will give you opportunities to help them resist these things even though they haven’t grown spiritually enough to be taking that course. Jesus will be using this protection course to teach you how to do these things for your friends.