An external religion, with its rules and forms, has taken the place of an inward experience with Christ. The saints of old, knew and experienced God inwardly in a personal and vital way. For Christ to truly reign within you, everything must be submitted to Him without reservation. There are many (Christians) who oppose such a total surrender to His reign.
Many pray, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but have no intention of giving up their own ways, nor of allowing the cross to deal with their most deeply held desires. God wants to take each one of us, although we naturally resist it, through a desert time of experiencing the cross. He does not want to make it hard on us for no reason, but only so that we might enter the quiet rest of the promised land with Him.
Many refuse His call, “choosing” what they think to be an easier path by “going back to Egypt”. They are really only going back to the slavery of their own desires. You see, most people would rather suffer anything than to allow themselves to be dethroned in the kingdom of their own heart.
Who are you going to allow to be your god/God today? You or God? Living by all sense and reason is death. Living from your 5 senses, making all of your decisions based entirely on external circumstances, reacting to what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell, (carnal living), causes you to be under the control of the god of this world, (his territory), where he is allowed to “blind you” and keep you in bondage to the self life. We walk by faith, not by “sight”. Will you be willing to surrender to Him today?