This raging war . . .

 

MacArthur begins today’s devotional with, “Spiritual warfare can be intense, but God’s grace enables you to prevail against Satan’s attacks.” I say, “Amen!”

Last night, I had another horrible dream. This is unusual for me as my dreams are mostly funny. I sometimes wake up laughing, but not this time. A terrible thing happened years ago and it took me a long time to forgive and move forward. The dream was a recurrence of that incident and I woke up thinking that maybe I feared it would happen again in real life. The emotional pain was deep, severe. I wanted to die.

But then Jesus came and whispered, “You are feeling my pain.” At that it seemed that my horrid thoughts were put to death, or I died to them, and Jesus filled me with His peace. This reminded me of Paul’s words about suffering the loss of all things, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10–11) He was not talking about physical death and resurrection but about being like Jesus and dying to all that would prevent him from living the resurrected life.

MacArthur says, “Through the ages Satan has accused, besieged, and battered believers trying to prevent them from living to the glory of God. He attempts to snatch the gospel message from a person’s heart even before salvation occurs: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)

This spiritual enemy bombards God’s people with false doctrine to prevent us from growing up. God provides otherwise because He wants us to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:13–14)

Attacks come as lies against biblical teaching, or in the sinful behavior of others, or in anything that will deceive so we cannot function as mature Christians. Martin Luther reported such intense conflict that he could almost see Satan. He was so angry that he hurled his inkwell at him. It left stains on the wall that stayed there, reminding all who saw them that spiritual conflict is real and vivid.

My dream was conflict too, not against the people in it, but against the spiritual forces of evil. For this, God says:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10–12)

Years ago, I read this unusual spiritual discipline as a remedy when severely attacked. When threatened, go to a place alone and feel the threat, letting it wash over you as if it is happening, but do not fight it. Instead, let it come at you as if it is crucifying you — then you will be released from it by the resurrection life of Christ.

At that time, my fear was of being abandoned and when I did this, that fear died and has never returned. This time, Jesus helped me do it again, letting the sense of being deeply wounded wash over me until it seemed that I died and Christ’s life took over. I know this sounds weird, but can only say that Jesus knows how to save His people — from whatever threats we experience!

PRAY: Jesus, this week Satan’s onslaughts seemed overwhelming. But You are answering prayer and I need to see these attacks for what they are — my enemy’s last-ditch efforts to inflict damage on a conquering child of God. Besides, what I experience is nothing compared to what You went through to defeat him. I know You will strengthen and protect me, just as You have protected all Your people. This verse keeps running through my mind: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

PONDER: Read Acts 4:1–22 and consider that I need to answer Satan’s attacks the same way, by always doing whatever God tells me to do, even using any attacks to experience spiritual victory and bring praise to Jesus Christ for protecting me and being with me in the battle.

 

 

Overcome lies with truth

“What’s true for you is not true for me” has now become, “If a lie is told often enough, people will believe it and then it becomes true.”

With fewer standards of measurement, who can be sure what is true? Uncertainty is bad enough, but twisting the definition of truth makes me feel a bit sick. For one thing, it is dangerous. Many are telling themselves lies like taking certain drugs will not hurt them, then dying because their lie was not based on facts.

I could fill the page with examples, but am more concerned with how truth is measured. These days, it is too often about personal feelings, desires, and other subjective elements rather than factual, outside, black and white, objective sources. For centuries, the Word of God was the truth and even if people didn’t follow it, most knew it was, and that their own sense of right and wrong agreed. Not anymore.

I’m in a Bible study called The Armor of God. The first week is about identifying the source of lies and how our enemy works to throw us off by telling us lies so we will not agree with or believe what God says.  While many of the lies that we hear are out of human mouths, those people are not the actual enemy, the one who Jesus called “the father of lies.”

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10–12)

Prior to this declaration of war against the liar and his cohorts, Ephesians has several chapters of truth from God that I am to believe, live by, and defend. However, I need the power that God gives to do that. Without Him, I cannot stand against the evil schemes that are determined to mess with my thinking and my life.

Some of those truths spill out in passages like the first chapter of Ephesians. Since it is so rich, I’ve tried to put some of what it says them in list form. It begins with praise: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ  who has . . .  

·         blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

·         chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

·         predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ

·         (according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us)

·         redeemed us through His blood and forgiven our trespasses

·         lavished on us the riches of His grace

·         made known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose set forth in Christ

·         planned in the fullness of time to unite all things in Him

·         given us an inheritance (which is eternal)

·         predestined all according His purpose so we might be to the praise of His glory.

·         sealed us with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:3–14)

The liar is busy convincing people that Christ is only a swear word, God does not exist, the Bible is just a book, sin is a non-issue, eternity with God is a human idea, religion is a farce, and a host of other innuendos and suggestions that are not only contrary to what God says, but destructive to human life. Worse yet, without having and using God’s Word as a weapon against them, these lies win. They totally defeat people and keep them from knowing about or enjoying this list of blessings.

The world is in a confusing mess. The Liar excels at directing attention away from his lies as the cause of that mess. He points to everything from politicians to climate change, technology to terrorism, from declining this to over-dependence on that. The bottom line of evil is and always has been the tendency of humanity to turn from objective truth to the so-called comfort of subjective lies. The devil loves and exploits this tendency and throws in more of his lies and stirs the mix.

No one person can win the war, but everyone who believes in Jesus Christ and knows how to wear His armor and will pray can extinguish those lies. The trouble is, that liar works with a greater fervency on God’s people so we can think of a million excuses for not believing in the power of God, and not standing against the enemy’s evil schemes in prayer.

Ask me how I know.

Jesus, You are "the truth" — bless You for being my anchor in a world that has wandered far from truth and into confusion and uncertainty.

Spiritual Battles — Don’t Quit

Besides the messes in the world, two nearby needs are heavy on my heart. One is a couple who have split up. The other is a couple who are battling her cancer as she declines in strength. I have been praying for both couples for a long time.

Chambers writes about some finer points in prayer saying that I must wrestle against the things that prevent me from getting to God (such as personal unconfessed sin), and I wrestle in prayer for other souls (like these four friends), but never say that I wrestle with God in prayer.

The only person in Scripture who wrestled with God was Jacob and he wound up crippled for the rest of his life. In my estimation, this man both won and lost. Being put out of joint was the best thing that happened to him. Before, he was a selfish schemer; after God struck him, he walked with God.

Those who go through that battle will be ‘broken’ and their concerns change. Instead of wanting my own way all the time, God has me bringing issues and other souls before Him, fighting for them. When that is happening, I’m to put on the armor of God — which is the simple truths of salvation. With those in place there is a “completeness” that makes prayer a prevailing fight rather than a losing battle.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm . . . praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:13;18)

Again, the fight is not against God.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10–12)

Prayer is a battle alongside God against the enemy, the spiritual forces of evil. It is not against God, but also not against other people. I cannot pray for the downfall of someone who is doing bad things, but I must pray for the downfall of the spiritual forces that motivate that person. This kind of prayer is called intercession.

Chambers says I am not to accept or yield to things that are evil. If my prayers are not answered right away, I’m not to be like a jelly-fish saying, “Oh, it must be the Lord’s will” as if I have done all I can do and nothing happens. Instead, I’m to put up a fight, not to wrestle with God, but to wrestle before God with these burdensome things, wearing the armor He gives me for the strength and perseverance needed to keep on in prayer until the battle is over.