This is war!

Genesis 35–36; Job 2; Mark 6; Romans 6

Some health issues are satanic. How do I know this? When I am fervently praying about something very important, like God being glorified in the memorial service for my sister this coming Saturday, the enemy does all sorts of things to stop those prayers. I’ve had to sort them out. Grief is normal, but it can be turned into a severe pity-party and I stop praying. Calls from family and friends are normal but the phone can ring with no purpose from the caller other than to interrupt or keep me from praying. My up/down emotions are normal too, but they can also stop prayer.

This past week, I had a four-day nosebleed and it messed with my prayer life. When that finally stopped, a spell of extreme fatigue began to the point that all I wanted to do was sleep. No cooking, cleaning, reading, none of normally enjoyable activities, nothing. I just wanted to lay on the couch and fall asleep.

Yesterday, one of our young pastors (a gift from God) preached about choices. In his message and in the music, I realized that I was using my feelings to govern my actions and choices to the point that the slightest sense of “I don’t want to” was blown out of proportion. The only option was a long nap.

I realized this was another of the enemy’s schemes. Besides that, several people told me they were praying that Christ would be honored in my sister’s memorial and that jolted me too. My energy level dramatically changed when I prayed that the liar would take a hike.

This morning, chapter 2 of Job tells of how this same enemy approached God and said Job (who passed the first test of not cursing God when his family and wealth were taken) would flunk if he was allowed to attack Job’s health.

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” (Job 2:3–6)

The attack on Job was far more severe than his attack on me. The point was not that I would curse God (or maybe it was) but that I would stop talking to God about His will being done, about His glory being revealed. A smaller version and much shorter story. Job eventually realized his thoughts needed altering and God restored his health and his losses. For me, as soon as I realized this was a spiritual battle, my energy came back — instantly and with joy — and I began to do my work with delight and pray with increased assurance that the Lord was listening. All I can say is WOW!

Mark 6 tells the well-known story of Jesus feeding 5000 plus with five loaves and 2 fish. The Holy Spirit immediately says to me that no matter how puny our efforts may seem to us the Lord Jesus can take our offering and make of it what is needed for the occasion. If I or any of the Christians in my sister’s family praise Him with the little that we might do or say, He can feed others with it. Again, this is a wow kind of God!

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

My sister loved Jesus and as these verses say, she considered herself dead to sin and alive to God. She stands before His throne complete, not that she was perfect but that He gave her His perfection. Her life was all about Jesus; in her death she wanted people to know Him. The enemy of God and of our souls does not want that to happen. The battle is on, but how can a defeated liar win over the Way, the Truth, and the Life? He cannot — and even though I have no idea what will happen, I know that Jesus defeated the liar and gives His people victory.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:10–11)