This is War!

Lately, I have received prophecies about letting go of the past. I have worked on it, prayed about it, made the decision to do so, and reminded myself many times about that decision. But it wasn’t until this morning that the Lord revealed to me how important it is to truly let go of the past.
What He showed me is this: we have an enemy who hates us more than you can imagine. He wants nothing more than to destroy us—all humans, but especially Christians. And he is sneaky and cunning, highly intelligent, very dangerous, and he’s invisible most of the time, but able to manifest himself to look like an angel of light, among other things.
The Lord showed me that every time that I react to attacks by reverting to victim mentality, I make myself vulnerable to more and more devastating attacks. I also make myself less and less effective. Imagine a soldier that has been wounded. If the soldier sees the enemy coming and, remembering the painful wound, goes ducking for cover. This allows the enemy to advance, and the soldier actually ends up helping the enemy hurt (or kill) him, and his fellow soldiers.
One of the most devastating blows that our enemy has dealt the Church (the Body of Christ) is with the doctrine that God wants to bless and prosper us. God does want to bless and prosper us, but that is not His purpose or ours. If we focus on what we can get in this world, we’re going to lose everything. Again, if we think of it in terms of warfare, imagine a whole army of soldiers who joined up just so that they could wear the uniform and get the pay and healthcare benefits. When the fighting starts they run away because they don’t want their nice uniforms messed up.
We cannot afford to keep feeding new Christians the pabulum that God wants to bless and prosper them. First of all, although it’s true it’s not the whole truth. If we are not willing to serve, God will not bless us, and any prosperity will be short-lived. And second, concentrating on what we can get in this world weakens the Gospel and its effectiveness.
We’ve got to wake up. There’s a lot at stake, including our children and grandchildren. We need to be praying for revival and for God’s perspective on our lives. We’ve got to learn to fight to win, which means learning to pray to win. Revive us, O Lord! God is good!

Heaven’s Response

Day Twelve

I had a pretty rough day yesterday.  I was not feeling good, having slept little.  By evening I began to feel truly wretched from lack of sleep and weakened from fasting.  So last night (really early this morning) I found myself preyed upon again by the enemy, attacking me with a migraine.

Peter was right when he said: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour,” (I Peter 5:8).  If you’ve ever watched nature shows, lions are opportunistic.  They hunt the young, the weak, the crippled, and any prey that have strayed from the fold.  The majestic males leave the hard work to the females, then bully them away from the best parts of the kill.  King of the beasts?  Hardly!  Lions are lazy, proud, bad-tempered, and opportunistic.

Just like a lion, the enemy attacked me when I was at my weakest: asleep.  In fact, that’s when these attacks usually have occurred.  So still desperately needing sleep, I woke up with a raging headache.  Usually I can pray these attacks away in an hour, but I was so weakened and in such pain that all I could manage was a wordless plea to God.

The pain subsided and in came His voice: “You’ve got to fight the enemy.  Fight with all the love in your heart.”  Immediately, I understood that when the pain is so bad, I have always longed for death’s release.  But instead what I got was Heaven’s response.  I understood that fighting with all the love in my heart means fighting for the love of my children and my grandson, fighting for the love of the missionaries that I’m here to serve, fighting for the love of Europe and her lost people.  Most of all, fight for the love of my Savior, who called me from the womb, and has a plan for my life.

When I thought about these people I love, the passion for them made my heart burn and suddenly all weakness was gone.  I stood up.  I took authority and told the enemy to get out of my house in Jesus’ name.  Then I started to praise my God—the best release for this kind of burning passion.

After a little while I returned to bed and slept.  This morning I awoke feeling much better.  The time I spent in prayer was delightful, and I didn’t want to stop.

I have heard many Christians say how tired they are of always engaging in battle.  Well, that’s life!  We live in a battlefield, like it or not.  We ignore that fact to our very great peril.  The good news is this: if we fight, we cannot possibly lose.  We are fighting a winning battle in a war that has already been won.  And the only thing we are told to do is to stand.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people, Ephesians 6:10-18 (emphasis mine).

Stand, fight with all the love in your heart, and win!  God is good!