This is War : Spiritual Warfare

One of the things we talked about at Global camp was spiritual warfare. To be honest the subject has always fascinated me, but sometimes spiritual warfare just doesn’t seem real. But let me tell you that it is real. Sometimes the most real things are the things you can’t see.

Take the wind for example. You can’t see it. But you can feel it and see the effects of it all around you. It’s the same way. You can’t see it but you can feel it and see its effects all around you.

Ephesians 6:10-12 says, “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”

Our battle isn’t against people. Not against flesh and blood. It’s against the unseen powers of the darkness. Satan is the real Enemy. But we are to be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. We studied through the book of Daniel at Global.  Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t rely on their own strength… but on God’s strength. It’s God who has the victory.

Bill, the pastor who taught at Global, made some points.
The mind of a soldier…
We are to expect the unexpected; recognize the Enemy’s tactics; and we are to be willing to endure hardships, ridicule, and hostility.

How shall we fight?
We are to prepare for battle, prepare for it through prayer and God’s Word, which is the sword of truth. We are to develop a plan; fight as an army – we who are brothers and sisters in Christ - ; celebrate victories and bandage the wounded. We are also the fight shield to shield, unity is important.

Bill also made another great point, “if you’ve been reborn in Christ then Satan can’t get into your head. But he can whisper in your ear.” And Satan will. He will tell you doubts, fears, and anything to make you stop doing what God has created you to do. Satan always works his hardest when he sees that God’s people are doing something big.

Let’s say that you were locked out of your house. What would you do? Probably go around and see if any other doors were unlocked, maybe see if a window was open. It’s the same with Satan. He will look for any open windows, unlocked doors, cracks… anyway to get in. He looks for your weakness.

You may wonder or ask, ‘what can I do about it?’ Well the answer is simple, but not always easy. Pray. We studied through the book of Daniel and one thing that he did whenever faced with spiritual warfare or opposition was that he prayed. Prayer is powerful. I could write pages of what I've learned about spiritual warfare or prayer... but I won't (at least not today in this blog post). Prayer is the most powerful weapon against the Enemy.

Remember: we're in a war.

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When faced with spiritual warfare what do you do? Do you pray? Do you try to ignore it? Are you ready for the battle that is coming? The battle that is here?

Things I've learned....

Last week I went with my youth group to a youth camp called "Global". I wanted to share some things I learned from it (or was reminded of)....

One thing about Global youth camp is that you are going to be moved out of your comfort zone. And that's a good thing. I went with my youth group, but there were other youth groups and I was able to talk to other people and make new friends, which was great :).

We were in the Word of God multiple times and it felt so good to be deep in God's Word. It's important to be in Bible daily.

Also, communication is important. Never bottle up what you're going through. We talked about how important having a "fox hole" friend is. During the war soldiers would dig small holes, smaller than a trench, called fox holes. They would get in and there was enough roll to fit two people. One would face one way and the other facing the opposite way. They did that so you wouldn't get shot. It's the same in real life. We are in a war. A spiritual unseen war. You need someone to have your back, to pray with, talk to, and encourage each other.

Prayer is powerful. It is powerful and we need to pray big.

The pastor who spoke said something like if you can understand God then your God is too small. God is bigger and greater than we can imagine. He parted the Red Sea, gave the blind man sight, and raised the dead to life. He can and wants to do big things. We just need to ask Him. He is a God of the impossible.



These things are only a small part of what I learned. I'll go into more depth over the next few weeks as well.

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Have you ever been to Global? What was your experience like? Do you have a fox hole friend? Do you bottle everything up or pray about it? Do you talk to God regularly? Are you in God's Word daily? 

Feel free to comment your answer(s) below :)

God is Good

This isn't exactly my normal post.... I really just wanted to remind you of something you already know. God is good.

But this fact is hard to accept. People question (and I think we all have before) how God is still good even in the hard times.
It's hard to remember that even in this dark, sinful, lost world that God is still good, loving, and kind and cares about us. We don't always understand what's happening or what's going to happen but that's okay because God is in control.

Job is a great example. He lost his wife, children, everything he owned... but he didn't curse God. He asked God why, there is nothing wrong with that, but he still didn't curse God.

Sometimes we go through trials and we don't know why. But we go through them for a reason. No one grows without endurance. And you can't have endurance without being tested.

James 1:2-4, " Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

A few days ago I was just smiling. I was smiling and full of joy simply because of the fact that God is good and nothing can change that.

No matter what God is always good...

Even in the trials... God is good.
Even in the pain... God is good.
Even in the suffering... God is good.
Even in the hard times... God is good.
Even when things don't seem to be going right... God is good.
Even when you're scared... God is good.
Even when life is chaos... God is good.
Even when you don't think you can get back up... God is good.
Even when you want to quit... God is good.
Even when you walk through the storm... God is good.

No matter what... God is good. Always remember that.

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What are some ways God has shown you that He is good? How have trials you've been through stretched you? When everything seems to be going the wrong way what do you remember? Do you remember that God is good?

Feel free to comment your answer(s) or thoughts about it below :) 

Prayer: Pouring out our hearts to God

Recently I read 1 Samuel 1. It starts off with Hannah.

Picture it: Hannah is married to a man with another wife, the other wife has children and she doesn't. She has no children, yet she is the favorite of her husband. She goes to the temple to pray, and with tears streaming down her face she asks God for a son and she vows to give him back to the Lord. Eli walks up and asks if she is drunk. Eli was so out of touch with true prayer he didn't recognize that she was praying from the bottom of her heart. She tells him she was praying and he tells her may the Lord grant her what she asked for. She goes home and later she gives birth to a son, she brings him to the temple and Samuel goes on to live for the Lord.

I'm not focusing here on Samuel or on Hannah, but on praying.

1 Samuel 1:15 says she was "pouring out my heart before the Lord." 

How often do we pour out our hearts before the Lord? I mean we can pray all the time, but how often do we truly pour out our hearts before the Lord? Jesus is my friend, and we can tell Him everything.

I've asked myself before "why do we pray when God already knows all about us and all that happens/has happened to us?  Think about one of your closest friends. You know all about them, but you still want them to talk to you about what they've been doing/going through/ect.. Same with God. He wants us to tell Him what's been going on in our lives, what we've been struggling with, what we've been going through. He wants us to not be afraid to ask questions, to pour out our hearts before Him.

Hannah was in tears. She was praying fervently before the Lord. Her story reminds me of Someone else praying a few thousand years later.

Luke 22:41-44,  (Jesus) "began to pray, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
[Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.]"

Jesus prayed fervently. He prayed so fervently that His sweat became like drops of blood. That's some pretty serious praying.  Jesus prayed to His Father. He was open with His Dad. He told Him that He wanted God to take that cup away from Him - we need to be open and honest with God - but He also said He wanted God's will to be done, not His - we need to accept God's will in all things that happen -.

To round up what we can learn about prayer from both of these passages from Scripture I'll make a few points...

• When we pray we need to pour out our hearts before God.
• We need to be open and honest with God.
• We need to accept His will no matter what it is because He knows best.
• And we need to just be ourselves with God.

Let's open up our hearts to God, pour out out hearts before God. Let's get to some serious praying. 

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Do we pray fervently? Do we truly pour out our hearts to God? Or do we pray a quick prayer to "get it over with"? 

Feel free to comment your answer(s) below :)