Tag Archives: Spiritual Warfare

An Eternal Love Beyond Anything We Can Imagine

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I pray that all of you had a great day on this Resurrection Sunday!  I got to enjoy a great time of worship with my family and my church family.  It was a great day and God gave us a beautiful day to remind us of the beauty of His love for us and what this day means to us as believers and followers of Jesus Christ.  Throughout this day, and the days leading up to it, I found myself reflecting on Easter.  Reflecting on the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the full finished works of Christ.  In worship this morning, we dove into Luke 15 and the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coins, and the prodigal son.  It illustrates for us an unending pursuit for us that God orchestrated and Jesus explained how the Father will go to whatever lengths to pursue those He loves.  That being us.  Everyone of us.  Jesus came to restore what was lost at the fall.

I found my way back to Galatians 4 today where Paul provides the illustrations of Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.  When Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, this was mans attempt to fulfill God’s promises.  verse 23 says, “The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife (Sarah) was born as God’s own fulfillment of His promise.”  All through the Old Testament we see where man continued to find their own way and live outside of God.  God, however, had another plan.  He was, from the outset out to pursue us.  Abraham was just one of the many examples God used to show where He fulfilled His promises and was out to free mankind of the slavery, sin, and death.

Let me back up a little.  Go to Eden, before the fall.  God had given man full domain of the earth.  The only commandment given was not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge.  With Satan’s intervention, man decided to not choose God first, ate the fruit and thus the fall happened.  We were cast out of the garden lost in sin and a world where we no longer had dominion as was intended.  We all know this.  So from that point God set out His plan to restore that which was lost.  To find the lost sheep, to bring back the lost son.

Isaiah 61, the Lord came to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free.  We are all broken and have been enslaved by our own sinful nature and wounds.  God had another plan for us.  We were never meant to be this way.  To be lost to our own sins.

What does all of this say to me?  Despite everything we have been through in our lives.  I don’t care where you are or what you have been through, God has a love for all of us like we could never fathom or comprehend.  We chose to turn away from God, but God never turned away from us.  He has always been out to pursue us and the works of Jesus Christ has been the fulfillment of that pursuit.  It is so wonderful to think about.  Yes, God care about each of us.  He loves each of us.  That means you too, no matter where you are.  We can take joy in Christ’s resurrection that through Him we are now dead to sin and alive to God.

Just think about how great this is.  Jesus IS Risen.  He IS Alive.  “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14).  He Rescued us from darkness.  Only real love would do such a thing.  Hell was never going to be the final solution and this is not what God wants for any of us.  He has been out to restore us from day one because of His great love for us.  We have to choose, however, whether we accept this and choose God once more, or take the final act of self-contentedness and refuse to follow.  Do we love God as He loves us and choose to live in the freedom of His love in Christ or do we choose what God does not want for us, which is death?  Me, I choose live and I choose God.

Army For Prayer

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I tend to learn something new each day I walk with God.  Sometimes they are big revelations for my life, and other times they are smaller things that may seem like more common sense.  One thing that really came through the last few weeks and months is the real power of prayer.  Not just on your own, but especially the power of having people praying for you, with you, or over you.  For me prayer used to be one of those things that just came along when I found it convenient or for things that were often more centered on my small world and story.  It didn’t take it really serious for a long time and I certainly never took the time to really ask others to pray for me or with me.  Never felt it was important or that my own situations didn’t warrant a need for prayer from others.  Certainly had a jacked-up view of things for some time.

I’ve learned quite differently recently though.  In the last year, especially, I really made it an effort to try to bring prayer into my daily life.  I began to grown in that sense, but it was not until the last couple of months that things really changed as did most of my spiritual life.  When I was going through the issues of my own wounds and talking with God in this, two team members from Ransomed Heart came to sit with me and talk.  They then took the time to set their hands on me and pray over me.  What healing power.  Having these men intercede was so powerful and it was the first time I ever really had anyone pray over me in that sense, ever.

In the last couple of weeks, I was struggling through some things where the enemy was really trying to bring me back down from the road that God now has me on.  He was trying to take me out and I sat in prayer to try to ask God strength and armor for it.  He told me that I needed to get others involved in it.  So with that, I stepped out and reached out to my brothers from Boot Camp, gave them a run down of what was going down and asked for their prayers in.  The response was great and the renewal I felt and the added strength God gave me through it was immense.  Again, something I had never done before in reaching out for prayers into something personal in my life.

God revealed something substantial in this and in the spiritual warfare we deal with.  Sometimes, we need more than just our own prayers to deal with the warfare of the enemy.  We need a prayer army.  We need people in our corner who care enough to jump right in and pray for us to help us find breakthrough in the struggles the enemy may have us in.  It will often take an army.  The enemy is relentless in his attacks on us as he looks to destroy our hearts.

Prayer works.  Prayer is needed in our lives every single day.  I wish I had found it before now, but God brought me on a journey so that I would come to a point where I knew I had to be totally dependent on Him alone.  Paul says in Philippians 4:6, “don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything.”  When Jesus is in the garden he asks the disciples to pray so that they will not give into temptation and Jesus prayed for God’s will to be done.  He prayed always and the Father answered.  In Luke 22:44, “an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.”

Prayer is needed throughout our lives and we often need that prayer army in our corner. Watchman Nee said, “Our prayers lay the track down which Gods power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.”  Sometimes where we need the prayer is deep and the tracks need extensions.  This is what your prayer army is for.  Your circles are huge.  Only wish I truly discovered this sooner. I’m grateful for the army I have in my corner now.  I’m grateful for the power of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Christ for my life with the Father.  All of that combined with the Armies of Heaven and we can be equipped and armed up for anything.

Not Losing Heart

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Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the the springs of life.”  This Proverb is clear clear about a critical thing, to not lose heart.  To not let the trials and troubles of this world pull you away from your faith and cause you to fall away from where God is leading you.  We are in a world at war.  It is a fact that is very clear no matter where we turn today.  I was hanging out with my brothers from Wild at Heart this weekend and while there we watched a Ransomed Heart videocast that they do every month in Colorado.  John Eldredge took time to make this point and then pointed to the news from today to just support the fact that the world is at war.  Turn on your news and what do we see, murders, thefts, Christianity under attack daily all over the world, addictions, families torn apart, and so much more.

With all of the battles we face each day, it can be easy to lose heart.  To shrink back to a life of complacency and just accepting your world as it is.  Not seeking God’s heart and not walking in union with Him.  It can easily happen to any of us at any time.  We can be taken out if we are not careful by the enemy and this world.  We are in constant war with this world, and with ourselves and our sinful nature.

When I came back from Wild At Heart in February, I was riding high.  I was so motivated and pumped and God was really starting to move me as I fully surrendered to him.  My writing has been on fire and He is leading me in a new direction in my life to help others in counseling to find healing and restoration in Christ in their own lives.  Something I am still so excited about and it’s a journey look forward to each day.  With that said, what happens after something like that.  Life happens.  The world you are familiar with is staring back at you and essentially says welcome back!  Now back to business as usual.  Get back to where you were.  I found myself at one point beginning to doubt myself and fighting acceptance of the status quo.  The enemy began to work at my life and at my heart to steal, kill, and destroy what God has been restoring.

This happens all the time to people and has happened to me before.  Losing heart and losing sight of where God’s leading.  We have to fight.  Christ tells us that we will have trials and trouble in this life, but He overcame this world and its troubles, so we can take heart in that.  Romans 5:3-4 says that “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment”  

We have to fight everyday.  Let God restore our souls each day and let allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and guide us through our actions.  It used to be very easy for the enemy to take me out and  he tries even harder now as I draw nearer to God, but I recognize that now and seek God to equip me for restoration and renewal each day and to armor myself with His armor.  The enemy is out to take us out everyday.  Trying to destroy our heart.  Trying to get us to lose heart and stop trusting in God.

It can be very difficult at times.  We have to fight to keep our hearts everyday.  Don’t let the world pull you away from your faith.  God has a mission for each of us.  We have to seek counsel and healing each day and he will help to not lose heart.  Don’t deny the war we live in, but arm yourself with God’s armor to stand-up and fight for your heart and your union with God.

“As in all warfare, the two essential elements in victory are knowing your enemy and knowing your resources.”   Sinclair B. Ferguson

Stand Ready to Defend

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The Christian faith has been persecuted and under attack for centuries.  Since the beginning, of the faith, the world has tried to stop what has proven to be an unstoppable force.  The persecution started with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  He disrupted the ways of the religious elite.  They were threatened by him and lied anyway they can to remove what they saw as a threat, not as the Savior.  The first apostles were nearly all martyred for their faith and boldness in defending the Good News and sharing the hope they had in Jesus Christ.  Down through the centuries, this has been the case.  People who have been bold enough to declare their faith in Jesus getting persecuted or even killed.

Today, this is going on many different ways.  The most prevalent we in the news right now is with ISIS.  An Islamic group that is bent on expanding their control and killing without mercy.  We all saw the images of 21 Christian men being marched out onto a beach and then beheaded.  The are a violent and purely evil force that must be dealt with and stopped.  Unfortunately, they’ve been allowed to grow in their control and influence.

Elsewhere we have what’s going on in this post-modern society we live in.  People have trivialized and minimized God’s Word.  Many will try to do anything they can to remove any reference from Scripture, like the Ten Commandments from public locations.  Things like removing “under God” from the pledge of allegiance, the secular side of holidays like Christmas and Easter becoming more powerful.  The post-modern thinking that tells us we have to accept and be tolerant of everything, no matter what God’s Word says, yet the same acceptance is not passed back.  You name it, it’s continuous and it grows.

So what do we do about this.  What can we do to combat the efforts of many to silence our faith.  1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be “ready to make a defense to everyone who as you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”  We are told to be ready to make a defense for our hope.  To defend our faith whenever we are challenged.  To defend the Word of God.  To defend our hope in Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin, tortured and crucified  to concur sin, rose on the third day defeating death, and ascended into Heaven with all authority in Heaven and on earth now given to him.

This is a pretty serious command.  Peter said in versus 14 that if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed so do not fear intimidation and do not be troubled.  What it takes now is for those of us in the faith to able to stand firm in our faith.  Not letting society or evils of the enemy stop us from proclaiming our hope and faith.  This kind of warfare has continually been going on.  We are to be bold in our defense yet.

It can be easy when your in a crowd and people just talk against faith or the Word to just go along for the sake of not being confrontational.  Was Jesus non-confrontational.  Absolutely not.  When Jesus cleansed the temple in John 2, what does he do?  He made “scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple.”  He made a whip.  Think about that.  He did not walk in carrying a lamb asking politely for people to leave, no, he made a whip and drove them out.  His love of the Father was so strong that he was going to defend his faith.  Imagine the chaotic seen this would be.

Jesus said “whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:33).  So we are not to shrink back and deny him.  Stand bold with the courage and faith that he showed for us.  It’s all of our responsibilities as believers to stand firm in the faith.  No matter what struggles you come through, even when someone comes right at you to challenge your faith, you need to be bold.

If you are unsure of how to defend it, then find your way back into Scripture and pray for the wisdom you need to be able to defend the faith.  2 years ago, I easily would have shrunk back.  Gone along with the crowd and not speak of my faith boldly, not matter where I was.  I refuse to fall into that trap any longer.  It’s all a part the warfare we face.  The enemy is after our hearts every single day.  Armor yourselves with the full armor of God every day so that you can be ready to stand firm in the faith and make a defense for our hope in Jesus.

Diving Deeper – Spiritual Warfare

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I have written several posts about spiritual warfare in some sense.  About things I have encountered and have learned over time.  What do you make of spiritual warfare?  Do you find it an odd topic to talk about?  Do you even think it’s real?  For many, it can be difficult to accept that there is a battle within the spiritual realm and that we are stuck smack dab in the middle of it.  I have to admit, that up until about a year and half ago, the idea of spiritual warfare never even crossed my mind. The reality is that warfare is all through Scripture and it is still very real.  1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be on alert, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.”  This is a warning to believers from Peter that this is very real.  The enemy and his demons are always on the prowl.  They don’t want to just hurt our feelings.  They want to destroy us…devour us.  Verse 9 says, “resist him, firm in your faith.”  We are too stand firm and resist the devil.  We have to stand firm.

This is spiritual warfare.  It is so real and a significant part of our everyday life in this fallen world.  If we don’t recognize it, it is that much easier for us to be taken out.   I was taken out for years.  Lost in my own sin, my agreements with the enemy, my wounds, and my passivity. I knew I was lost, I knew there was something more, but I did not know where to turn to deal with it.  The enemy had a foothold in my wounds and my sins and I never recognized it or resisted.

I’m going to dive deeper into this with some things I’ve learned through Scripture, speakers and books , and my own experiences.  As with each of the 4 Streams, I am still studying and learning to apply it more to my life so as I go along, I want to share and help you apply it to yours.  We talked about Walking with God the other day.  That’s the fundamental foundation of it all.  Through walking with God, he has helped me to accept and now recognize the spiritual warfare in my life and around us.  It’s very real and we either accept it and fight, or we let it take us out by denying it.

John Piper shared that, “There is a war going on. All talk of a Christian’s right to live luxuriously “as a child of the King” in this atmosphere sounds hollow — especially since the King himself is stripped for battle.”  The king himself is striped for battle.  That tells us something very significant.  The King, that’s Jesus, is striped for battle.  He is not here to hang around in peaceful harmony.  He isn’t, as John Eldredge points out in his book “Desire,” “quite like the pictures we have in Sunday school, Jesus with a lamb and a child or two, looking for all the world like Mr. Rogers with a beard,  The world’s nicest guy. He was something far more powerful.  He was holy.” He is striped for battle.  Exodus 15:3, “The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name.”  Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The world was lost to Satan.  After the fall of man, this became his world.  All-out war has been waged to win us back from Satan and from the fallen world.  To restore us to who we were meant to be.  To restore our hearts.  Jesus was full of passion in his life, not apathy.  “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17).  He knew his purpose and mission in this world and was not to walk around carrying lambs.  It was an all-out war to win back the human race from the prince of this world and restore our hearts to the glory that God created us for.  He was poised for warfare with the enemy.

Let’s start with Christmas.  As I have pointed out in previous posts, Christmas was an invasion.  Christ’s coming was Heavens invasion of this world.  A covert invasion at that.  Many of the Jewish faith were looking for a king to rise up to save them.  But God had another plan.  He was going to sneak in behind enemy lines through the womb of a young teenage girl.  You think this was not an invasion and a battle, then ponder what happened next.  The “Massacre of the Innocents.”  When figuring out this was to be a child born, Herod sent soldiers into Bethlehem to have every boy child under the age of two killed.  Satan knew that the Messiah was born and used Herod to try to kill him.  An angel appeared to Joseph to tell him to take Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt until Herod was dead and the angel sent word for them to return.

Jesus encountered warfare directly when he was in the wilderness.  Satan came and tempted and tested Jesus throughout those 40 days.  This was warfare.  Jesus, who was fully man had to endure this battle, but rather than shrink back or succumb to the battle, he stood firm.  He resisted by the power of the Word of God and faith in the Father.  There is not a single one of us in this world that could have endured the battles Jesus did and come out unscathed.

Good Friday and Easter.  Also spiritual warfare.  Adam’s passivity brought about sin and the world for was lost and given to Satan as his domain.  He was given authority over a world that was meant to be given to man.  Man, ever since, was trapped in a world of sin.  Jesus’s death on the cross defeated sin, however, being offered as the perfect sacrifice.  By his resurrection, death is defeated.  By his ascension to Heaven and the Father’s right hand, all authority in heaven and all earth was given to him.  He won it.  He warred with Satan and demanded the keys to the world.  It is no longer the enemies.  Now, by his authority, Jesus has given us authority to fight for our world and fight for our faith.

The war is not over.  Look at the world around us.  We have believers still being martyred because of their faith in Christ.  You want to look at the works of the enemy still trying to wage war on us?  Simply look at ISIS.  Look at the Islamic Terrorists, who follow their law to the letter with the goal of destroying all who don’t believe in their faith.  Look at this post-modern culture we live in now that does whatever it can to remove mention of Jesus or the Bible.  Amber and I were driving to my son’s baseball game the other day and we were behind a car with a sticker that said ‘Respect’ in all different religious symbols from around the world.  Not one Cross.  Basically the message is that Christians need to respect other religions, but the same is not required for respect for our faith.  The Christian faith has been under attack, continuously for 2,000 years.  If that does not tell you that spiritual warfare is going on, then I don’t know what will.  Satan is doing whatever he can to keep us from turning to God and turning to faith in the works of Jesus Christ.

Another example of Spiritual Warfare is religion.  We encounter the religious spirit throughout our lives.  Jesus was and is anti-religion.  The religious establishment became so bloated and were all about their own glory.  Jesus called them out directly for the hypocrites they were.  In Matthew 23:27-28, Jesus says, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs – beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy.” Jesus called them out.  He did not shy away from them, he went directly to them and boldly.

Today, the same thing is happening in our churches, world religions, and cults.  The religious spirit of the enemy has infiltrated the church and filled it with division, man made-dogmas and traditions that are not based on Scripture, and churches have skewed away from truth and trivialized the Word of God.  This is all spiritual warfare and is the enemy’s way to divide the faith.  We have to recognize that for what it is to stand more united in our faith and hope in Jesus.  As my pastor says, Jesus + Nothing = Salvation!

Spiritual warfare is very real folks.  It is on-going everyday.  We have to arm ourselves to be able to take it on and not let it take us out.  Ephesians 6 tells us to put on the full armor of God, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm in the faith” (vs 13).  The armor is the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, and sword of the spirit.  This is real and very necessary.  As Paul said, it’s so that you will be able to resist.  We have to resist the devil.  Going back to 1 Peter 5, we as believers are called to resist the devil and stand firm in the faith.  This is not Old Testament.  This is after the ascension of Jesus.  Meaning, the war is still ongoing and still is today.

It takes practice and work each day to be able to recognize spiritual warfare and be able to armor up to resist it.  We can stand firm in our faith in Jesus because it is by his death, resurrection, and ascension that we are restored and now can be armored through the power of the Holy Spirit.  If you are unsure of what to do to resist, start with prayer.  Learn to walk with God every day.  Talk with him and ask him to help you recognize the warfare in your life.  Invite Jesus into your heart to help you armor up.  If you are unsure of how to pray, I want to share a prayer that I have used which has helped me each day to set my mind right, open my heart to God, and enable me to stand firm in the faith.  It’s a Daily Prayer that John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart adapted based on God’s Word and is a great tool and weapon.  There is also a Daily Prayer (Head of Household), which I actually use as part of my daily walk.  Another great tool for also bring the works of Christ over you and your family.  If you’re unsure how to pray, look at these prayers.  It’s prayer that works.

Again, Spiritual Warfare is very real.  We cannot deny it exists.  Be ready to stand firm in the faith, because the enemy is going to be there to try taking you out every single day.  Look at my post from February 4, “The Realness of the War We Live.”  The enemy will try to take us out even in the smallest ways.  If we don’t resist, it can be easy to fall again.  We have to recognize the warfare, accept that it exists, and bring the works of Jesus over our lives to help us armor up for the war that’s ongoing.  Stand firm in the faith and resist.

You Make The Choice

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Every day of our lives are filled with choices.  Choices in what we eat, what we wear, what music we listen too, who we interact with and how, whether we pray or how, and many many other things.  We live a life full of choices.  I wrote last week about motives.  I looking at the choices we make in life, we have test our motives.  Do they come out of faith or do they come from some other area in life or even the enemy?  We then have to make the choice, usually on our own, of how we will act.

This could be anything.  Here are some of my recent choices  I choose where I worship, not based on it being the right churchy thing to do, but because I believe God has drawn my family and me there for our growth together and to connect with other believers in the body of Christ.  I chose to go to Colorado for Wild At Heart, not because I just wanted to get away from home and take a trip, but because I sincerely believe God called me there to restore my heart.  I enrolled in seminary/counseling studies not because I just wanted to go to school again, who really does, but because I believe God, having now restored my heart, is now calling me to something bigger than myself and this is the next step.

We all have to make a choices and then we have to live with whatever consequences come from those choices, good or bad.  I was listening to a Ransomed Heart audio session from a previous Boot Camp and it reminded me about something we all have to face.  Defining our life and how we live through the choices we make.  John Eldredge made a good point about life.  He said, “A life lived in fear, compromise, self-preservation, and/or capitulation is not a life at all.”  I’ve realized that many of us, including myself, spend much of our life making choices based on compromise of values, faith, and principles.  We fear rocking the boat and making waves in the world around us.

I was sitting the other day and just reading through my journal on past things I wrote and even my notes from Wild At Heart.  I was reminded of something.  On our first morning, we had our first session and then given time to go be with God on our own.  During part of that time, I just put everything in backpack I was carrying and started walking.  I walked down the road leading out of camp and contemplating the question of who I had been as a man up till then.  Then it hit me while walking on that path.  That dirt road covered in snow and ice, that I nearly busted my tail on a few times.  I had spent most of my life walking the more traveled path.  The well worm path that most people find themselves on.  I had been comfortable there and could easily hide there.  God told me that I needed to get off of that path and start taking the one less traveled.  The icy, rough, and unknown path.  The path that leads to him.  “Two roads diverged in the woods, and I took the one less traveled.”

So since coming home, I have made the choice to no longer compromise. To longer live in doubt, fear, self-preservation, and capitulation.  I made the choice to take the path less traveled.  To stand up for the freedom I am offered in Christ.  To help fight for the hearts of others so they can find freedom in Christ.  To not run from the attacks of post-modern thought and the enemy, but stand-up and face it head on.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)”

At Wild At Heart, John gives Jesus as a big example of someone who stood to fight.  Also looked a William Wallace in Braveheart drawing the parallels between the two.  The story of William Wallace told in Braveheart is inspired straight out of Scripture and Jesus’s life and purpose.  Jesus picked a fight with Pharisees and religion, calling them out for hypocrites they were.  William Wallace picked a fight with the English.  Jesus fought and gave his life to free the hearts of all man kind.  Wallace fought and died to win freedom for Scotland.  The point here is that we have to choose whether we are going to stand on our faith and principles fighting for who we are and for the hearts of others or if we are going to sit by and hide letting the world tell us what we need to do and think and feel.

You see, we all have to choose.  Jesus could made so many different choices through his life on earth, but then his purpose would have never been fulfilled and we would not be set free from the law, sin, and death.  Just think, what if he gave in to Satan in the wilderness.  What if he denied his deity with the Pharisees after being arrested to avoid the Cross? Wallace could have chosen to live in peace and not fought.  He could have stood by and done nothing.  Robert The Bruce could have capitulated to Longshanks later after becoming king and not fought to eventually when freedom.

Bottom line…we have to choose.  We have to a long look at our lives, our direction, our faith, and calling and decide if we are living in fear, compromise, self-preservation, or capitulation.  Spend time in prayer on this.  Ask God to show you where you are compromising and not being who you are meant to be.  This will reveal so much and then you have to make the choice yourself, he gives us the free will and choice, of whether to do something about that and follow where he’s leading.  You make the choice.

Don’t Underestimate Yourself

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Have you ever had times where your just doubt who you are as a man or woman?  Do you underestimate the impacts you can have on this world and whether or not you have the abilities or the strength to do what it is God’s calling you to do?  I’ve had many moments over the years where I have doubted myself.  I have doubted my place and even doubted who I was as a man or even I had become a real man in many areas of my life.  I questioned my purpose and direction and doubted if I could ever step out of the life I had created and truly fulfill my calling.

It was not until the last couple of years that I really started to see more of my self and in the last months when I truly realized who I was.  I let go and decided I was going to trust God to father me and lead me.  I knew that by trusting him, he would enable me to have the strength and confidence I needed to move.  I was no longer just going to float along and I was no longer going to doubt my place in this world.  I am crucified with Christ to this world (Galatians 6:14).  I no longer worry about what the world may think and I no longer doubt where God is leading.  I don’t underestimate myself.

I pray the same thing for you.  You are far more important than you realize.  Through faith in Christ, you are a child of God and by staying faithful will come into you inheritance in the Kingdom.  If you really stop to think about that, how awesome is that.  That makes everything we do for the Kingdom that much more meaningful. It gives each us much more worth than we have realized.

Trust me.  I know the spirit of fear and doubt.  Those spirits have haunted me for years.  Through my wounds and my sins.  Many of us hide behind those wounds and allow those foul spirits to overtake us.  Again, I did for years. I hid.  I feared getting exposed.  I feared making any kind of changes that would shake the security I had.  Not any more.  I go ahead with full confidence in who I am as a man and as God’s son.  Because of that, I am making changes.  Now do I live with regrets?  It would be easy to, but no.  I believe God has used me in my wounds and sins to equip me for the battles I will now face ahead of me.  He has now armed me with the power and wisdom to recognize those battles and the confidence that anything is possible through Christ.  He is sending me into Seminary studies now to move into a world of Christian Counseling and Ministry to help arm more of his children.  Before I would have never done this, but I have faith where he’s calling me now and don’t doubt my abilities he gifted me with.

We are all God’s children and we are all called to be warriors for his Kingdom.  God designed each and everyone of us in his image.  HIS IMAGE.  Don’t underestimate that.  You don’t have to live a life that is covered in doubt and sin. You don’t have to stay locked into where the world says you should be.  Again, through Christ, you have been crucified to this world and to death and sin.  Screw what the world says you should do.  Turn to the Father.  Turn to him and allow the Holy Spirit to empower you for the race.  What he says is far more important.  It’s all in Scripture and he has so much more to share with about your true identity to him and where he wants to lead you. He has given each of us gifts and talents.  The question is whether or not we will use them to glorify him or not.  We have to choose.

Bottom-line is, don’t underestimate who God has created you to be.  Max Lucado said, “You weren’t an accident. You weren’t mass produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.”  Always remember just how special you are to God through your faith in Christ.  He has a special place for each us and through our faith a special place in the Kingdom.

It’s A Daily Battle

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I have realized that we are a world at war, but this past weekend it really hit me that we are locked in battle not just occasionally, but every single day. It’s unrelenting. The enemy tries to take us out in ways you would not think about.  I know I have written about spiritual warfare a few times.  At Wild At Heart Boot Camp, it was definitely touched on significantly.  Spiritual Warfare is a part of our daily life and will find us no matter where we are.  A friend I met at Boot Camp who has been attending Ransomed Heart events for some time explained that what we retain about 20% while at Boot Camp and the remaining 80% comes after.  I have found that to be true so far as my heart continues to be filled with all I have learned and I immerse in Scripture and prayer each day.

The spiritual warfare and the issue with our daily battles came through and hit me hard this past weekend and in the most subtle way.  I began the day like normal with working out and then diving into Scripture.  I am currently studying through book of Ephesians.  There’s a story behind that, which I’ll get into another time, but God led me to dive into Ephesians.  I was a little rushed on Saturday morning to get out of the house as we had  a field workday for my son’s high school baseball team and then they had an inner-squad scrimmage.  Beautiful day and a great time with our baseball family.  Something lingered however.  Due to rushing, I did not make the time I wanted to journal and really dive into prayer like I try to each day.

Again, did not think too much of this at the time, but as the day wore on I kept getting thoughts in my head about not doing so.  I was constantly having to deflect agreements with the enemy about my commitment to God and to my spiritual growth.  I kept hearing thoughts like, “see, you don’t have the endurance for this race. You’re not committed.”  I had to fight that and it bothered me.  I had to step back from that and renounce those agreements.  It hurt to hear those thoughts.  When you get those negative feelings, it’s easy to just agree and say yes, that’s right.

On Sunday morning, I took more time to dive into this thought in my Scripture reading and thinking about the spiritual warfare we face.  The enemy is literally trying to take us out every single day.  There is no hiding from this. Think about it.  Jesus had to encounter spiritual warfare consistently.  Look at Matthew 4 and his time in the wilderness and being tempted by Satan.  It was a relentless battle.  I was listening to a audio session from John Eldredge and he referenced this and the fact that this was Jesus’s private battle.  No body was with Him.  However, God felt it important enough to share.  Part of the reason would seem to be that this is a serious issue we all face and even Jesus had to face this.  Being taunted and tempted for being the Son of God.  Jesus warned us about the enemy coming like a thief coming steal, kill, and destroy.  It is very real.

So in dealing with this daily battle, what do we do.  First, we need to readily recognize that it exists.  We cannot live in our own little worlds where nothing happens.  Simply does not work that way.  We have to be immersed in prayer and in God’s Word to be ready to deal with each days battle.  In Ephesians 4:23, Paul says, “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.”  We have to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us and prepare for the onslaught to come. In Ephesians 6:11-12 he says, “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against the strategies of the devil.  For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies,  but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against might powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

It’s all right there.  Spiritual warfare is a daily part of our life.  This past Saturday, was probably my first real bought with it since Wild At Heart and really recognizing it for what it was.  On Monday, it hit me even harder and it was a unrelenting battle.  Amber and I are making some changes to our room to give us an area to sit and read or pray or what have you, which I am all about.  On Monday, while I was working she began the process of moving stuff and cleaning the space.  Then it hit me out of nowhere.  I was filled with this resentment and anger for some reason about it and it just kept on for a few hours.  The enemy was digging at me and it was all total B.S. and I had to fight that back.  I know this won’t be the last time either.

We have to arm ourselves everyday.  We have to lean to God and keep our hope and faith in the promise of Christ Jesus.  A.W. Tozer said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory. I’m not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me – he’s got judo I never heard of. But he can’t handle the One to whom I’m joined; he can’t handle the One to whom I’m united; he can’t handle the One whose nature dwells in my nature. “

Satan cannot handle the One whose nature dwells in us.  By that, I’d say we are victorious already in Him.  We need need to resist the devil and choose God first always.  The victory is in choosing to resist and the outcome is up to God.  There are unseen spiritual forces and if don’t resist, who will.  If we turn from our faith and let evil win, just imagine where you would be.  We are victorious in Christ, so it’s in him our hope rests.  Recognize the battles for what they are every day. Don’t deny they exist or you will be taken out quickly.  Choose to resist and let the Holy Spirit arm you with the armor of God that comes through faith in Christ.

The Realness of The War We Live In

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It’s been a couple of days since I returned home from the Wild At Heart Boot Camp.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a powerful experience while in Colorado  The challenge faced, however is what next.  It can be very easy in this world to go back to life as normal and not put a thought again to the experience.  I could put aside all that God showed me and move back to my work life and not do anything further.  I didn’t get a chance to meet everybody, and I would hate it, but I am certain this happens for guys.  You get back to the world and everything begins to revert.  I pray that this is not the case, but this world and the enemy are vicious.

When we are back to our normal lives it can be very easy to make agreements with what the enemy and the world tells us.  Most men are taken out because they make agreements with the enemy.  These agreements can be very simple or more complex.  You may think you just don’t have it in you to pursue what you feel called to.  You may just think you’re not good enough or don’t have the strength.  These are agreements the the enemy may throw at you and if you agree it can take you out. Once you make those agreements, everything begins to filter through them and the enemy will setup shop right there.

We are constantly at war in this world.  Coming back from an event as powerful as the Wild At Heart Boot Camp, the enemy is going to throw whatever he can at you to pull you back down.  I can hear him trying to pull me back.  I know it’s only been a couple of days, but the battle begins now with even more relentlessness.  I have to arm myself each day in prayer and the Word in order keep myself from falling back to the old man or my false self.

1 Peter 5 says that we must stand firm against the enemy and be strong.  He prowls around like a like looking for someone to devour.  In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that “the thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.”  Jesus had to encounter this battle everyday.  Spiritual warfare is very real and we have to be armed and ready to deal with anything the enemy will throw at us.  Jesus did not mean for us to come along and stand by and take it like good little Christians.  No…Jesus came not to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).  He came to do battle.  God is a warrior. Exodus 15:3, “The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name.”  Man is a warrior; Man is his name.  We are made to fight and fight we must.

As John told us at Boot Camp, denial of the heart is the heart of human struggle.  Many in this world, even in churches are like the Hobbits in The Lord of The Rings.  Naive, clueless, or in flat out denial of how ugly the battle actually is.  Look at our brothers and sisters in the faith getting martyred around the world because they refuse to renounce their faith.  The enemy is out to destroy our faith.  When Satan was cast out of Heaven, he decided to go after God’s heart by destroying the thing He really loved.  That’s His image bearers…us.

For me, this is a time for resolve.  To stand firm in my faith and where God has taken me.  To arm myself everyday and everything under my authority in Christ.  I know I am trouble for the enemy now as is anyone who will stand strong in their faith.  We cannot skate along singing kumbaya pretending nothing is happening.  Call evil for what it is.  Just like the Islamic evil that is faced everyday in the Middle East.  It is the enemy at work.  We have to stop sitting in our little small world and stand firm.

So arm yourself.  Don’t sit back waiting for things to happen.  Don’t let the enemy sink his claws into you.  Don’t walk through life alone and let the enemy push you deeper or back into your wounds and agreements.  Stand firm in your faith in Christ.  Ephesians 6 says be strong in the Lord…put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be ready to resist the enemy.  I’m no longer going to be partially in.  I am all in now for good.

The Never Ending Battle For Our Hearts

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So you’re going about your day.  Things seem to going okay.  Woke on time, had breakfast, maybe got a workout in, even spent some time in prayer and scripture, and then you begin your day. Things seem to be going good.  Maybe sitting in some traffic heading to work, but no big deal.  As things progress, something happens.  All of sudden you feel this tremendous sense of anxiety or a sense of frustration and anger that you just can’t explain.  Everything crumbles all at once and you feel like the day just got shot to hell really quick.  What in the world just happened?  You can’t explain it, but still feel this feeling of negativity or even anger and you don’t know why.  Have you had this feeling before.  That feeling of unexplained anxiety, frustration, anger, or worry.  I know I have, and it comes out of the blue.

The answer to this is really simple, yet very big.  We are at war.  There is a never ending, continuing battle that is ensuing in this life and the battle is over our hearts.  God is in constant pursuit of us.  He has devised a full plan to pursue our hearts and has been on that path since man fell.  On the flip side, there is an enemy, Satan, who is also after our hearts, but with a different purpose.  Jesus explains that his purpose is to steal and kill and destroy our hearts.  He wants to destroy every aspect of our connection with God’s heart through lies, deception, temptation, and even infiltrating us with worries, fears, anxiety, and anger.  It is a battle that is constantly happening in this life and no matter how much closer we get to God, the enemy is constantly trying to pull us back.

Our lives are constantly full of things going on.  We live in a busy society, and we seem to to always have something going on.  In the book, Waking the Dead, John Eldredge says it like this, “Ask the people you know how things are going. Nine times out of ten will answer something to the effect of “really busy.” I know I’ve thrown that answer out and hear it all the time.  With so much going on, we don’t see this battle even when it’s right before our eyes and hearts.  We get filled with so much from all directions that even when we don’t notice, it can come crashing down and those moments happen where it all hits us at once.  It’s almost like, the enemy was blinding us and then when we least expected it, he pounced.    I know it sounds crazy, in some sense, but I think it is very true.  Satan is always out to destroy our connection with God.  It all started in Eden and continues now with even more fury now that we are under Grace through Jesus.  Satan, knows he has lost and is going to try to take as many down with him has he can.

Many of us have lost site of this.  I certainly did for a long time.  Actually, I can honestly say that I did not know about this battle for a long time.  I did not have a real glimpse of the real struggles we all face every single day and no matter how much we try, it is always there in some form or fashion.  John Piper said, “There is a war going on. All talk of a Christian’s right to live luxuriously “as a child of the King” in this atmosphere sounds hollow — especially since the King himself is stripped for battle.”  The battle for our hearts will always continue until Christ returns to destroy the evil one for good.  We must always remember this and be ready to combat the evil when it comes and know that God is always ready to battle for our hearts as well.