Hello Friends!
I know my last blog was a toe-cruncher and I believe it bothered some folks, I mean hey, I was convicted on some things too, I got my toes crunched. I believe that was something that was needing to be said and I truly hope people will learn and grow from it. I ultimately want people to grow and truly live up to their potential, and be incredible ambassadors for Christ, I truly do.
I thought a really good follow up to my last blog, would be to talk about Spiritual Warfare. Now that is a pretty broad topic, so I am really keeping to the aspect that I am going through right now and I am learning about!
To begin with, we have an enemy. This enemy has long been attacking humanity out of pure hatred for them, but mostly out of hatred for God. Here is a good quote to explain why:
"It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons." ~ William Gurnall
Another good quote to follow this up on is:
"This is the heart of our enemy. He is determined to hinder and harm and ruin God's image bearers. To steal and kill and destroy... the story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it." ~ John Eldredge
The enemy hates you but also fears you. The enemy fears what we can become as we have so much potential. I think that is why he likes to attack our identities a lot.
Another good quote to add and this really sums up what the devil is up to as far as his attacks go on believers.
"So, it becomes the devil's business to keep the christian's spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage...we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead!" ~ A.W. Tozer
Oh, a good scripture reference to understand your enemy, check out 1 Peter 5:8
So, now that we have a general idea of our enemy and some of his goals, lets check out more on fighting back!
First off, the bible tells us this:
Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers of his dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Our fights, the attacks that come against us is from our enemy. Now, there is a danger in the belief that every bad thing that happens to us is a spiritual attack, but that is not necessarily true. Some things are consequences of our own choices or some one else's. Or things are not perfect and will mess up and fall apart, so it is important to discern what is occurring.
Another great verse is:
2 Corinthians 10:3 "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
There ya have it. Warfare, yeah, crazy stuff right? It can seem a little intimidating and almost hopeless, but fear not, for there is victory!
Part of the ministry of Jesus, his disciples, Paul and the others was engaging in spiritual warfare and setting captives free.
Acts 5:12-16 "The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed."
You might be surprised how frequently Jesus and the others I mentioned went head to head against the forces of darkness mentioned in Ephesians. I would encourage you to investigate those for yourself and check behind me.
Jesus has overcome and gives us the abilities to overcome the spiritual battles too! Here are some pretty cool verses to go along with that!
Colossians 2:13-15 "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Luke 10:1-3 "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."
Further down in this chapter, is when Jesus really drops some serious truth on overcoming spiritual warfare.
Luke 10:17-20 "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
(Here I want to clarify that the whole thing about trampling snakes and scorpions is a figure of speech. This gets taken out of context a lot to justify killing snakes. There is nothing wrong with snakes, they do a lot of good, as do scorpions. Jesus does a lot of figure of speech throughout his ministry, so make sure you have gotten the full context.)
Ok, we have been given authority to overcome ALL the power of the enemy, so we have been equipped to fight and win the battle. Now, the fights will be hard, even brutal sometimes and may even take quite a long time to overcome, but overcome we shall. We have to fight the good and often tough fight.
"If we would do what Jesus did- heal all those who are under the power of the devil- and if we would find the life that he offers us, we have to fight for it. Fiercely. That is where we are now in this great story." ~ John Eldredge
You may have noticed that I have been quoting John Eldredge quite a bit in this blog, well, I have been reading his book called Waking The Dead and I must say it has been an absolute incredible book to read and I would highly recommend it. He has another great quote that will help for sure in us learning to just how to engage into spiritual battle.
"All spiritual warfare follows the simple pattern given us in James 4:7: Submit and resist. We always start by submitting ourselves to Christ and then resist whatever has come against us or against those we love." ~ John Eldredge
We must resist the enemy and submit to the Lord.
James 4:7 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
On top of that, praying! Praying is huge and vital! Praying on your own and praying with others will go a long way and is a heavy duty weapon against the enemy. Here is some epic scripture God directed me to and wow!
James 5:16 (ESV) " Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."
Matthew 18:18-20 "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
So, pray people, pray!
For me, I have been struggling in my battle that I am fighting right now on just how effective my praying is and if it really helps at all, but the scriptures says the praying is helping, so encouraging!
For me as well, there have been times when the Holy Spirit has awakened me in the middle of the night to pray specifically on my battle. I have also had a few nights when I was restless and could not sleep, and so I prayed over this battle I am fighting and afterwards, I slept very well. So, there may be times when you feel a stirring at night, during your sleep or at other moments of you being called to prayer, well, there is a reason for that and so, you should for sure go to prayer. The Spirit is working in ways we cannot see or understand. Spiritual warfare for sure takes faith to fight as well. Have faith!
The Holy Spirit is a powerful help to us in the battles and is actual crucial to the battle as well. The Spirit will sometimes be one to nudge you into battle to pray for someone or something in particular. The Spirit will also reveal to you what to specifically pray for. We will sometimes be warned by the Spirit too for different things.
So, yeah, some rather heavy duty stuff this spiritual warfare, but we can and will win. We do still have to engage in the battle and not just sit back and let God do it. He will do the most of it, but it is up to us to be His hands and feet and do our part. Remember, we are overcomers and more than conquerors. Pray and seek the Lord and find a few believers you trust and ask them to help you pray. Be patience and of stout heart, things will get ugly sometimes, we just have to fight through and persevere! Stand firm and resist the devil!
Be encouraged!!
