Are You Battle Worthy/Ready?…
As I write this share, the words of one of my favorite songs cries out to me: “There’s no pain, Jesus can’t feel, no hurt that He can not heal, for all things work according to the Masters holy will. No matter what you’ re going through remember that God is just using you. For the battle is not yours…it’s the LORD’s.”
Has your faith walk been tested? This week? This month? This year? Ever? Do you proudly wear the scars of the spiritual battles, the tests, the trials, the tribulations, the feelings of hopelessness, abandonment, disappointment, fear, rejection, slander, lies/untruths, and the other wiles of a satanic attack as your badge of spiritual warfare? Have you, or are you willing to take a spiritual bullet in the chest for the LORD ?
I would argue that if your walk has not undergone an intense attack by the devil and his minions, you aren’ t really walking with the Lord. Oh, you might be ‘in’ church, attending regularly, but you are sleep walking or snoozing on your evangelistic duties, relationship with God and your prayer life! For those are what the destroyer comes after.
You see my brethren, if your faith has never been put under a “I got a testimony “ attack, you are spiritually dead in Christ. A pew fixture sitting idle awaiting to be called up to meet Him in Heaven.
Real faith is tested. Real faith can leave you all alone on a rooftop with your accusers, fake friends and bewildered family pointing at you saying ‘just curse God and die.’
For in life, if your walk with Our Father is real…, if you commune with Him and He with you on a regular basis, Satan has a bullseye on your back and you better have on the whole armor of God or you will be consumed and curse God and die in your spirit.
Think about it! Did Jesus not suffer? Was He not tempted? Did not Satan stalk Him from His entrance to His exit from this realm? Weren’t the saints (and aren’t they to this day) persecuted for our faith? Tortured? Lied upon? Hunted? Disbelieved? Hung out for all to see because they proclaimed His Name and converted souls in His Name?
Look around you…as King Solomon wrote, there is NOTHING new under the sun!! Miracles are in your very midsts. God’s anointing is on someone’s life that may be lying in your bed, eating at your table, evolving before your very eyes. But you are spiritually blind! You are walking and living in the flesh with carnal eyes not the spiritual eyes or spirit of discernment you received at your salvation.
Someone close to you may be in the midst of a Job season. Are you hurling stones or flapping a tongue of accusations or on your knees offering up prayers on their behalf? Are you seeking to tear them down, or lift them up? Are you talking to God on how you can assist or issuing cease and desist orders? Do you fear their struggles may hop off them onto you like in an exorcism? Where is your faith? How are you living? How will you give an account to the Lord for how you treated them during their test?
Take the baby bottle out of your mouths, get off of the ‘new convert formula’ you have been feeding on for the last 5, 10, 25 or more years and come eat at the table a warriors feast of The Word so that you can be a blessing to the Kingdom and have a victory song of your own to sing! Deepen your relationship with Him so that He can use you on the battle lines of our spiritual warfare.
When did you last enjoy a five-course daily feasting on His Word? Have you learned to rightly divide the Word of God so that you can feed someone else’s starving soul? Do you have a testimony? Or are you just playing it safe, doing the bare minimum so as not to arouse the evil one to look in your direction?
Jesus said, “I know your deeds, that you are neither hot or cold. I wish that you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm —neither hot or cold— I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say: ‘But I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Is this you? Do you not know you were bought with a price, the slaying of the sinless one, the Lamb of God? Do you rest comfortably taking for granted His sacrifice? Not reading your Word? Not communing with Him daily? Not becoming Battle-Worthy/Ready for a test?
A new recruit in the military undergoes a war preparation camp called basic training to prepare them for the battlefield and the wars yet to come. Upon your salvation you became a soldier in God’s army but are you training for our spiritual battles?
Cannot your spiritual eyes see that your sister or brother in Christ is at war with the devil? Is it a Job season, a Moses season, a Paul season, a Ruth season? Or can you even grasp the references or differences? You see, when one among us is under satanic attack, we are all at risk. Will you be the prayer warrior who, based on their relationship with God, can be an intercessor? One who can call on His name and changes begin to happen? Or are you the leech just sucking up all the spiritual energy in the room or like Job’s friends and family questioning someone’s faith walk?
Be clear, if you are walking upright with God, if you believe all His promises, if you convene and commune with Him daily, Satan is coming for you too one day if you are blessed and highly favored, so get ready. The attack can be a direct hit or an indirect one against your husband, wife, parents or your children. But be clear, his target is you with the ultimate goal of destroying your relationship with the Father. For the dark one seeks to kill and destroy God’s most prized creation…a man (or woman) after God’s own heart.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” – Ephesians 6:12
But if you have never experienced the manifest presence and Agape Love of Our Father in the midst of a life and death battle with the evil one for your very life, your salvation…then I can attest that you ain’t walking right with God. The destroyer’s attacks are well documented in The Word beginning in the Garden of Eden to today where it can be your health, your marriage, your children, your job, your finances, your reputation , your sanity, your relationship with the Father…all open game for him.
And he does not fight fair and will use those closest to you to tear you down. Just look at Brother Job and how Satan used Job’s wife and best friends to double down the attack on him. Or examine Jesus’ time here on earth and how Satan attempted (he tried Jesus many times) to attack Jesus’ mindset at the Last Supper when he used Peter to attack the Master’s mission.
“ And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on earthly things.” Matthew 16: 22-23
Here Satan came after the relationship between God and man in Job’s case and the Glory that Jesus was created to achieve (as our blood sacrifice to reconcile us back to Our Father) through those He trusted and depended on to be armor-bearers!
But God’s Glory, the work He has begun in us will be completed if we stand tall, fast and pray, increase our prayer life, remain obedient unto His Word, study more and deepen our faith walk by trusting Him for our deliverance.
“The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for His heavenly Kingdom. To Him be the Glory for ever and ever. Amen” 2 Timothy 4:18
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be anymore pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4
If you are in the midst of your test/trial/tribulation/heartache/depression/abandonment/misfortune/divorce/upheaval, you name it but it all is your spiritual attack, rejoice. I say REJOICE!! Shout Hallelujah. PRAISE ye the Lord! You are blessed! Your spiritual life and walk have caught the attention of the evil one.
So, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to withstand the wiles of the devil.” Ephesians 6:11
And, “Fear thou not, for I [am] with the: Be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yes, I will help thee; yes, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10
We only have to be battle ready! For the battle is not yours, remember, it’s the Lord’s!!