The Battle

For the last week God has been showing me glimspes of the spiritual battle that goes on daily in and around our lives. I have known this battle to be true. I have experienced things in the last 11 years that have opened my eyes to this spiritual battle that wages.

Sunday the message at church was about Deception. How satan lies to us and deceives us. After the message my sisters and I headed out to go to the funeral of a family member. He had commited suicide the week before. The funeral was emotional especially watching the widow and her children say good-bye. It was a beautiful service as I mentioned before. I see clearly the battle that occured in his life. The speaking of truth; the speaking of lies and how he listened to the lie that life was not worth living.

This week satan tried to speak lies to me as well. Not about life. But about my worth. You see the date had been set for me to share my testimony with about 100 women. See Awaiting Release for more on that. That date was this week. With the day approaching satan tried to discourage, annoy, place fear, steal joy and minimize me as a person. Sometimes it is crystal clear that it is him coming to steal, kill and destroy. Other times it creeps in. None the less he tried and tried to lessen God and his work in my life. The battle is real.

I am thankful I didn't go through this process alone. My girlfriend was prompted by the Holy Spirit to share her testimony the night before I was to share mine. Together we wrestled it out. God spoke truth into us and firmly established that yes this was his will and yes he was with us and yes his Holy Spirit would guide us; we were not alone.

Good solid biblical teaching helped affirm this to be true. The scripture speaks it. The battle wages. Yet did you know that there are armies of angels battling for us. God asks us to clothe ourselves with the full armor of God. Helmet of salvation, belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the spirit, SHEILD OF FAITH and feet clod with the good news of Christ. That part the sheild of faith came to mean more to me this week. It is our faith that covers us in battle. The sheild is used to extinguish flaming arrows of the evil one. You see the evil one is on attack. He is trying to shoot us with flaming arrows that will destroy. We need to stand up and stand with faith. That God is who he says he is, that he can do what he says he can do. To believe God.

I believe God has done an incredible work in my life. I also believe God asks me to share that with others. I believe he takes the good, the bad and the ugly of my life and can use it for his glory. And I believe that satan does not want that to happen. For when we share our lives, others are encouraged. The Spirit of God moves and lives are changed.

Dear friends, do not be ignorant of the spiritual battle that is going on in your midst. And stand firm in faith. Fighting the good fight of the faith.

Ephesians 6
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.