WEARY FROM BATTLE

If you’re walking through a time of battle, fear and anxiety right now my friend, you may scan the whole Bible searching to find relevant words to encourage yourself as I often do, and if you are familiar with many of the verses and teachings of Jesus, you will find that they will somehow seem to rise to the forefront at just the right time and be exactly what you need to hear at just the right moments. It’s good to find a word from God when we need it. But God usually prepares us with his Word before we even know we need it. Jesus told his disciples ahead of time that he was going to be crucified. He told  them ahead of time that they would experience persecution. He told them in John 16:4 that when their hour comes that they may remember the things he had told them. What a blessing to have had our conscience shaped by the stories and experiences of men and women of the Bible.  Like Peter’s restoration, years before we would wonder ourselves, after we had failed the Lord through an act of our own sin, that Jesus would receive us back. What a blessing to know how to embrace and personalize the story of Elijah, experience years before we would experience our own fears and lack of faith as we are left alone to wonder with doubts and feelings that we too have been abandoned. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, his response was not something he quickly came up with, but with the verbal Word of God that was in Him. When Jesus responded to the temptation to turn stones into bread by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone,” he was doing more than finding an applicable truth to counter an error. He recognized that he was standing where Israel had stood before him, in the wilderness, tempted to question God’s fidelity to his people. It was not doubt, that tempted Jesus, but satan.

 

satan knows how powerful the Word of God is. God's word is the only weapon that can defeat him and he is very aware of that truth. That is why he is forever trying to change, misuse or have us question what God has said. He even used it as he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness in Luke 4:9 when he said to Jesus,  “If You are the Son of God, he said, “throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You carefully;". He did the same thing when he caused Eve to question what God has said in Gen. 3:4 "You will not surely die", the serpent said to the woman" by responding to her statement in Gen. 3:3 "but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." I believe that satan uses his questioning God's word tactic against us more than any other. I'm not sure, for I have not counted them, but of all the times in the scriptures that I can think about where satan was speaking, he is in some way questioning what God says or will do or questioning us before the Father as he did Job and even Jesus.

 

While it is not the easiest effort that you will ever make, for satan will come against you in every way that he can to keep you from reading, studding and trusting the word of God, it is the only weapon that God has forged for you to use in striking back against the enemy. That was the weapon that Jesus used when he engaged satan in the wilderness. Even the archangel Michael, in his dispute with satan over the body of Moses, rebuked him in the name of the Lord. Jude 9 is the supreme illustration of how Christians are to deal with satan and demons. The example of Michael refusing to pronounce a curse upon satan should be a lesson to Christians in how to relate to all unseen demonic forces. Believers are not to address them, but rather to seek the Lord’s intervening power against them. If as powerful a being as Michael is, deferred to the Lord in dealing with Satan, who are we to attempt to reproach, cast out, or command demons? Ephesians 6:10-18 describes the entire armor that God has provided HIs children to use as we battle spiritual warfare. But to know how to use this armor you must know what it is, how to recognize it and how to use it. Otherwise it will be of no use to you. Battling over something can wear you out and leave you weary, learn the facts about spiritual warfare and be ready the next time you encounter the enemy.

 

Hold Fast,
-Bren