Spiritual Warfare

Verse: Colossians 4:2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving…”

Prayer is essential to a relationship with our Heavenly Father, and Jesus. However, Satan will do everything He can to prevent us from praying. Therefore, it is wise for us to get ready for spiritual warfare. Satan wants to keep us bound up with anger, fear, anxiety, doubt and intimidation and Satan is not going to give up this fight easily (1 Peter 5:8). The only way to have victory and freedom is to draw close to God.

1. In order to draw near to God begin with prayer. To be sure that God hears your prayers begin with the Salvation prayer (see the prayer on the right). Ask Jesus into your heart and tell God about any sins that may need to be confessed. He is faithful to forgive our sins (1 John 1:9). The prayer for salvation is how we begin a relationship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. To remain close to God we need to remain in fellowship with Him.

2. To fellowship with God set aside some more time to pray and tell God everything. Whenever we face issues or troubles we can pour out our hearts to Him. We can tell God all the details, emotions, fears, worries and concerns we can think of (Psalm 142:2). He wants us to pour out our hearts to Him. Satan may try to create diversions to keep us from praying when he realizes that we are trying to draw near to God.

3. To prepare for Satan’s attacks get several verses together. Use the truth o f the Word to fight back. Write the verses on cards and carry them everywhere and begin to memorize them. When worrisome/bothersome thoughts surface repeat the memorized verse, if possible say it aloud. A Christian woman at church recently pointed out that the two weapons we have against Satan are prayer and the Word of God.

4. Get an accountability partner. Someone you can call and ask them to pray with you when you feel overwhelmed. Fellowship with other Christians is important to be able to continue in the faith (Hebrews 10:25).

Finally, pray continually. We cannot be close to God with out prayer. When we read the Bible, attend church, sing along with the hymns, go to bible studies etc, yet we do not pray we are deceiving ourselves (Isaiah 29:13). Even though we do all these activities we are wrong in thinking we are close to Him if we are not praying. Closeness and intimacy with Jesus and God come only through heartfelt prayer. It is so important that prayer is the only way we can begin a relationship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father.

See, the sovereign Lord comes with power!

Prayer:
Thank you Father that you are for us and not against us!

Action Plan (James 1:22 & 25):
Set aside time for prayer, today. Make it a priority.

Read More:
Ephesians 6:10-17

The Journey to Trust

Beth Moore said in the Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed study that, “God is not harsh. He is holy” (p. 83). That statement along with a comment from a friend made me think about the magnitude of God’s holiness. That created a desire to really want to understand what holiness is and how He could be holy, yet allow tragedies to occur. When tragedies happen it is hard to believe in God’s goodness and trust Him in those times and sometimes for a long time afterwards.

I have to admit that even now, I have a hard time trusting God. I am fearful. I fear that He will lash out at me to punish me, or He will take away something, or someone that I care about. The reason I think like this is probably due to two reasons. The first one is because my Mother died when I was seventeen. The second reason is because I am human.

In my humanness it is hard for me to understand that when stressful, difficult, or tragic things happens there must be a reason for it. I imagine Job had a hard time believing God had a reason for allowing him to suffer too. However, God is a big God and he uses big sacrifices & difficult circumstances in our lives to accomplish big things, i.e. Esther, Abraham, Job. As a result of Job’s suffering we now have a book in the Bible (Job) that offers comfort and hope to many Christians. So, perhaps, our tragedies are used by God to accomplish His purposes that we cannot see or understand now. Just as Job surely did not know that his life story would be recorded and used to teach many others about God’s character.

When tragedy strikes we can have faith that it is not from His hand (Job 1:12 & Job 2:6-7), as the story of Job teaches. We also know that God is holy, so He will work everything out according to His plan. Understanding His holiness is helpful in being able to trust Him. Since He is accomplishing big things and He is holy, then He can be trusted even during dark, difficult times. (Psalm 46:1)

Holy, Holy, Holy

Verse: Revelation 4:8
“Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

A godly Christian woman in my church made a great observation. She stated that the bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. We don’t see in the Word that God is mercy, mercy, mercy; or love, love, love, yet we know that He is merciful and loving. However, the bible does repeat the characteristic of holiness three times stressing the magnitude and degree of holiness found in our God.

We often think of God like He is a 'good' version of ourselves, but God does not have our nature. He is Holy. That is His nature. We, on occasion, do good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), but He is perfectly holy, always. Perfect holiness is a trait that is difficult to understand because, aside from Jesus, there are no human examples of this holiness. Since we are sinful (Romans 3:23), we cannot fully understand the depths of His holiness. We know that it is not equivalent to the idiom, ‘holier than thou’ which means ‘a person who is obnoxiously pious or self-righteous'
(http://www.dictionary.com/). Perhaps to understand holiness it will help if we discuss what it is not.

Holiness takes no pleasure in degrading another via dirty jokes or racial slurs, it takes no delight in seeing others suffer, there is no amusement in the embarrassment or humiliation of another and no pleasure in condemning someone else. It is not abusive emotionally, physically, or verbally. Holiness is the absence of selfish ambition, conceit, malice, dissentions, envy, fits of rage. Holiness is not obscene. Holiness does not turn a blind eye to injustice. Holiness does not ignore oppression. On the other nail pierced hand, holiness is unconditional love, absolute truth, and eternally merciful.

The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high!

Prayer:
When everything seems to be working against me, help me to remember that You are holy.

Read More:
Isaiah 6:2-3

Plan of Action:
Today, during your prayer time, take time to confess your sins to Him. He will be faithful and just to forgive them. (1 John 1:9)