It's always been something lurking in the back burner of my mind. I have never doubted its existence, nor its effect on my life. However, it was never as fully realized until these last two weeks. Spiritual Warfare. I believe very strongly that not only is there a very real battle being fought for us on another level, but that we are in the last days of the battle. I believe very strongly that we are living in the end times. Just look around us. Look at the amount of murders every day that occur so often now that we are barely affected by them. In fact, I will go ahead and assume you are like me, and in America, the only murders and killings that are particular emotional are that of little children and mass murders. What has happened to us? We see so much of it we've become desensitized to it. What once seemed shocking is now not only not shocking, but it's just the day to day norm I get to see living in the Memphis area. We've got a government that thinks they can and should make the decisions that for all time parents and families have been able to decide for themselves. We've got a volatile situation internationally that could cause World War III at any moment. Syria. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. Russia....Need I go on? What about China and their one child policy and the government censorship. America's heading in that direction. America's abortion numbers are astronomical. These days its advocates have gotten so bold as to even promote it as birth control (back in line with Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger) for an "already too big and growing population" and justify abortion as the most humane loving thing a parent can do. What? Really? Really????
So don't try and tell me the enemy isn't at work here. It's real. If you are going to argue that, then go ahead and stop reading, because you are too blind to hear (yes, believe me, that makes sense) what I'm about to say next.
I want to post two lyrics that God is living to encourage me this morning in a little bit.
"The enemy, he has to leave, at the sound of Your Great Name"-Natalie Grant
"The God of angel armies is always by your side"-Chris Tomlin
No matter WHAT you are going through this morning, this is for you. We have been watching Shannon O'Dell of Brand New Church (they have an app, look it up). He has a series on the armor of God. Putting on the full armor of God is always something I have brushed off as figurative, but now I have taken a whole new perspective on it. If we are in a battle, you have to wear armor. My kids and I have been going through the C.S. Lewis Narnia series for the first time together (if you haven't read them, do it!) over the last few months, and the great battles in his stories draw from scripture. I had no idea before I dug into them just how much meat was in them! Good stuff! Spiritually challenging stuff. If you haven't read them, I won't ruin them for you, but there is a character in the books representative of Satan. She has heard a prophecy of her being defeated by the God of their world and when she does her best to stop it from coming true. But ultimately, she knows she will be defeated. She just wants to take as many down with her as possible. That's what our very real enemy does. He KNOWS he's already lost. Newsflash: I skipped to the end of the book--I know he loses too! But that doesn't mean he's given up. Far from it. If he can get as many unbelievers to stay that way as possible, he counts it as a victory. What's more, the Bible says in John 10:29 that no one (not even the enemy) can snatch a believer from God's hand. He's got you!! Take some peace in that! But that doesn't mean it's over for you. The enemy may not be able to drag you to Hell with him, but you can bet he's still at war with you. In fact, the more passion you show for Christ, the angrier he will be. He would be happiest, honestly, to have you be stagnant. A limp, dead, lukewarm believer that God says would be better off choosing one thing or the other, because then he would not do so much damage to those who do believe and their representation of the gospel. What I mean is, it would be better if you were not to name or call yourself a Christ follower if you actually aren't going to live like it. People see that, they watch you, they judge you. And while he doesn't expect perfection from us, if you live exactly like you did before you called Christ your Savior, you missed the point. You can do a lot of damage to those new believers who are stumbling and trying to learn how to live. And to those who are not yet believers and see know difference between you and themselves. Don't be lukewarm. Don't mill around and call yourself a Christ follower and show up to church for an hour on Sundays and get too busy for Christ the other 167 hours that week. Don't give Christ lip service and disobey in all the other areas of your life, negotiating and exempting yourself as "good enough". Get real. That isn't pleasing to him. It HURTS him.
But back to Shannon O'Dell's series...The first thing he talked about was the belt of truth. So many times we reject the truth of God's words and listen to the lies of the enemy instead. It causes not only disobedience on our part, but almost always a tremendous amount of hurt and brokenness and guilt. Satan tempts us not just to blatant disobedience but a love for mediocrity. Go for the status quo he says.
Men, don't lead your family.
Husbands: Don't pray with your wives, that's just silly....Wouldn't you rather watch tv? Don't pray with your kids, they have too many activities to make time for that.
Women: don't submit to your husband. You are liberated after all. Feminism and all that.
Families: You don't need really have to tithe. That wasn't meant for you. That was meant for...them, over there. Not you though. Did God really say that?
And there it is...the oldest lie in the book. Did God really say that you shouldn't eat from that? It looks so delicious though. Surely he didn't mean it applied to you....
Since the beginning of time, he's been using the same lie. And the sad thing is we listen every time. We eat it up. We love it. Because it justifies our sin. Whatever it is. And here comes the tough love and stepping on toes, get ready.
Did God really say homosexuality is a sin? That was not for us though, we live in the 21st century. That was for...them...over there. What about living with your boyfriend? That couldn't really be a sin right? Everyone does it so it can't be that bad. What about being obese? Did you know if you are obese, more than likely you got that way from living a lifestyle of sin. Ooooooh...I hit a nerve there didn't I? What? Am I wrong? Suddenly your sins are glaring you in front of your face staring you down. They aren't so pretty or satisfying are they? They are ugly. I know. I was confronted with the blatant ugliness of my own disobedience about this time last year when God pointed out that me being so overweight was a direct result of my sins of gluttony (binging, emotional eating, always choosing junk and 2nd servings over eating healthy) and laziness (lack of exercise). As a result, I found myself at 320 pounds and depressed and hating my body--in addition to being too tired to walk a flight of stairs or do much physical activity at all. Now, I'm not saying you aren't beautiful the way you are--don't misunderstand me. God loves YOU and thinks YOU are beautiful no matter where you are in your life. You are made in his image after all. So hating your body is not Biblical. But hating your sin is. Whoa. That rocked me, when God revealed to me that my sin of living an unhealthy lifestyle is just as much a sin as adultery or murder...or lying. There are no big or small sins. Just sins. And God HATES each and every one of them the same.
I am such a broken person. Thank goodness God loves us in our brokenness. And he's helping me to battle my sin, and most likely it will always be a struggle for me. With any addiction, you are an addict for life. But with food, it's not something I could just quit cold turkey and wait it out. It's also something I need to survive and can't just avoid being around it. That makes it that much harder. For me, it's moreso the thoughts behind the actions that are usually the sin. If I eat some pizza, I will feel better. If I am stressed out, some ice cream will help. But they rarely do. See I got in a habit in my teen years of turning to food for comfort instead of Christ. Ideally, if we are feeling weak, we should seek Christ. But Satan has us believing the lie. Did God really say to pray when you feel you can't do it on your own? The catch 22 is once we do that thing, whatever it is, that we are seeking satisfaction in and the enemy promises it to us, we feel worse than before. Because now we have an empty feeling, a physical weariness, and guilt as well. Why do we always believe the lies? Why would we expect the enemy to tell us anything else?
If we would get real, and get in the word, and pray--1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray continually, meaning all day long--the enemy has to leave! I learned something new in my Beth Moore Bible study a couple weeks ago. The enemy is terrified of PRAYER. Why? Because prayer is a kind of way to harness, so to speak, God's power. I have recently started telling my kids this, when they say they can't do something. You're right. You can't. But you have God IN you, and HE does have the power. He created the world, he created everything we see, and he defeated the grave. In fact, he defeated the enemy not just already at the cross, but in the future as well. We already know he wins. He has so much power that we know the end before it happens. If we have HIS power in us, and what we are doing serves his purpose, we CAN do it! We just have to pray!! That is profound! Just soak that in for a moment. You have his power in you. If you had unlimited power to harness, what could you accomplish for his kingdom. What demons in your own life do you now have the strength to battle? Let me tell you something, the hardest battle to be honest, is that of turning your life over to Christ and trusting that He will do something with his power, instead of seeking your own way. Personally, I can attest to that. I'm a control freak. I don't like not having an answer, and I'm in a position right now where we are doing that. Logically things don't make sense. But I know I have to trust and fall on God's word, and pray like the father said- " Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief!" Sometimes it's hard to wrap our human brains around the fact of how he works, because God is too big to contain. I have a HUGE prayer I am praying with Jacob right now over our family. God has used the marriage conference almost 2 weeks ago as a catalyst in our marriage and we are striving for obedience in every area of our life. We are praying constantly over and with our kids, and just the change we've seen them is amazing. The change in our marriage is amazing. God has revealed himself in a whole new way and we've had a better marriage these last 2 weeks than we have in our last 8 years. We've been inspired to dream big, and are seeking God in what we would have us to do and to provide a way. We want him to show out in such a way that everyone will see how big our God is and be amazed at his presence and glory. That he will make himself real to everyone who is watching from the sidelines. I can't see a way any of this could happen but we are praying that God makes one. He's teaching us faith and trust right now, and also to see the blessings in the little things that we might have ignored or brushed off if we weren't looking for them.
Anyways, back to the battle. The enemy is ticked! I've been sick for the last week with this awful crap and I know it's because we are getting right with God and Satan just wants to trip me up. Thank Goodness God reminded me that my joy is not conditional or situational and comes from the Lord instead. I am gonna keep on singing his praises, because I know the battle's already won, and thank God I am on the winning side.
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