We’re Fighting a War
God speaks to me in and through people, whenever I hear the same message from a variety of sources; I know it’s from God. Here are a couple of things I’ve been hearing lately…
We are Spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are in a spiritual war, everyday we are in this war. When we are tempted to not forgive someone, give in to our addiction, be angry, impatient, believe we’re a victim, we’re not worthy, whatever it is; these things are the enemy playing us. We are being played and it’s part of the war, if the enemy can distract us, or get us to do something that’s wrong for us to do, then he either gets us on his side or at least gets us to not be as effective for God’s side.
How the devil gets us to believe; is first the thought enters our mind, then we start to believe it and we develop a mindset, outlook or attitude. Then we feel it-it gets planted in our hearts and becomes an emotion. Finally we act on it, it’s a behavior, and a behavior can become a habit.
We can develop coping skills that are necessary for us at the time, but later in life they don’t serve us anymore. These coping skills are things that can lead to addictions. They become habits and addictions we need to break free from. From the outside viewer, these habits and addictions seem like really poor decisions, (maybe we’re stupid, etc.) and that brings shame to us, so we hide them. We put on a false self—we are really a “normal” person. We play this game that says we don’t have bad days, we have it all together, we are in control—this is really denial. These “bad” decisions we made to develop these coping skills are not bad choices at the time; they’re normal responses to abnormal circumstances. Once you know someone’s story, what they’ve done all makes sense. The choices they’ve made are all understandable once you hear where they’ve come from and what they’ve been through.
All of this comes back to warfare, we are being played and sometimes, others in our lives are the players. The people that have neglected or abused us in the past are all players in this game. Just as God uses people to accomplish His purposes on earth, Satan uses people too.
“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
How to break free? Well, that’s something I don’t believe can be done alone. We need Jesus, our healer to come inside of us and help us. He alone can deliver us from these things. The Fruit of the Spirit includes self-control which means following the Spirit and allowing the wind of the Spirit to drive our lives. We can tell our flesh “no” or “wait”, we can fast from things, and in these actions we learn discipline and how to run to Jesus instead of giving our flesh what it wants. If we quit feeding our flesh and allowing it to rule us, it will die. That’s what the Bible tells us we need to do; to die to our flesh. This is self-control, it really isn’t “self” at all, it’s our self; powered and controlled by the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit and running to the Spirit with all of our “stuff”.
“For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Romans 8:13 (AMP)
Another way to fight this war is with worship:
“15b This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s… 18 Then King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then the Levites from the clans of Kohath and Korah stood to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud shout. 21b The king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor. This is what they sang: “Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!” 22 At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves. 23 The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other.” 2 Chronicles 20:15, 18, 21-23
This works, God will fight our battles for us; we need to do our part which is walking with Him, being led by the Spirit, and trusting totally and completely in Him. We can be delivered from all of the things we are in bondage to. He died to give us the abundant life.
“For the enemy comes to steal and destroy, but I have come to give life and to give it in abundance.” John 10:10
I am so very glad to be living the life of a person walking with Jesus. I have more work to do in killing my flesh but—thank God I’m not where I used to be!