Exhortation to Martyrdom 48

Long ago we heard the words of Jesus, and we have now been disciples of the gospel for a long time, and we have all built ourselves a house. But where we have built—whether “on the rock,” having dug and gone deep, or “on the sand” “without a foundation”—the present contest will show. For a storm is upon us bringing rain and rivers and winds, or, as Luke calls it, a flood; and when these beat against the house, either they will not be strong enough “to shake it,” and for this reason the house will not fall, since it has been founded “on the rock,” Christ; or they will expose the unsoundness of the building, when it collapses under the present occasion. May this be far from our buildings! For great indeed is the fall in denial, or, as Luke says, “great is the ruin” of the building without the foundation. Therefore let us pray that we may be like “a wise man, who built his house on the rock.” Let there come upon such a building the “rain” from the spiritual forces “of wickedness” “in the heavenly places,” or the “rivers” of the rulers and authorities hostile to us, or the harsh “winds” from the world-rulers of this darkness, or the flood of the spirits under the earth, and let them beat against our building “on the rock,” so that not only does the house not fall, but it is not shaken at all, and the powers at work suffer from us rather than do anything to us. And let each of you, striking at the adversaries, say: “So I box, not as one beating the air.”