Spititual Warfare ~When the Devil Attacks~

I woke in a cold sweat, gripped with fear. 

It  was early Spring, and the furnace was running so my bedroom should have been nice and warm, but instead it was  ice cold. 

I could tell, even in the dark that the door 

to my bedroom; which was always left 

open, was closed. I turned on the light, 

and got up and very carefully opened 

the door and checked my apartment out. 

The door was locked and things looked ok 

so I returned to bed where I propped 

myself up with a second pillow, grabbed 

my Bible and began to pray, however, 

the stream of ineffective and garbled 

words  that fell from my lips 

accomplished nothing...  

Suddenly I remembered, Psalm 100:4 "Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise." 

 

“Thank you Heavenly Father for my life, Praise you Father for all of my blessings, todays, and yesterdays, and the ones I’m not even aware of. Thank you for my life and the lives of my children. Thank you for my church family and all of my friends...”

As I praised Him, the warmth to the room returned, and a gentle comforting feeling fell over me as  I drifted back to sleep....

Many Christians are not aware of the powerful, unseen evil that lurks about trying to steal their joy. Instead of realizing what it truly is, they place the blame for their misfortune on others and seek a glass of wine, sleeping pill, or the comfort of anyone but Jesus. When they do that they are in fact handing the devil a victory, and who wants to do that? 

Unfortunately, the closer we draw near to God, the greater threat we oppose to Satan.

Satan has strategies in place to take us out if we’re not prepared! He targets us through open doors into our hearts and souls. Doors we may not even realize were left open. He attacks our minds where our thoughts are formed, and our thoughts control our heart. The things the mind attends to it considers, and what the mind does not attend to it dismisses. 

The word Heart can be found eight hundred and sixty two times in the ESV version of the  Bible. Two hundred of those times it pertains to our thoughts, as it is through our thoughts that we communicate with the Holy Spirit. It is with our mind that we form our opinions, social attitudes, values, and our self esteem. Our self esteem, be it very high, or very low, attracts Spiritual Attacks. If it is too high, we are typically overly arrogant or too proud. If it’s too low, we border on self pity which is akin to selfishness.

The opinion we have of ourselves affects our actions, achievements, and how we relate to our family, friends, and co-workers, but most importantly, it affects how we relate to God.

Satan wants to control our thoughts, and he works overtime to get it done, using any sin we commit or have ever committed to accomplish it. He works hard to dig up our past and use it against us. He tries to convince us that our former life style was much better than anything Jesus could ever possibly provide for us. He brings to mind our failures; lost jobs, broken marriages, mistakes we made while raising our children or anything we are ashamed of.. He works on us, promoting feelings of guilt, and shame, whatever it takes to convince us that we’re not worthy of God’s love.

Two of his more well known victims was Adam and Eve. He convinced Eve that God was lying to both she and Adam, and that his promises to them were nothing short of lies  that would come back void. 

After she was convinced, she easily encouraged  Adam to sin along with her. When God discovered them naked, and asked Adam how they knew they were naked, Adam was quick to throw Eve under the bus. It made them doubt Gods love for them and ruined their lives, which was exactly his plan.  

Satan slips in through doors to our minds that we leave ajar. Doors can be something as simple as a lie we tell, or something we spend time doing, that we really shouldn't do: reading listening to, or watching things that are not of God, things we should flee from.  I’m fond of saying, “What goes in is what come’s out.” Doors can be opened if we look at someone lustfully, or spend time with a friend or co worker who’s lifestyle is not Godly. I’ve heard it referred to as illegal entry, which is truly what it is. But God allows it to a degree because guilt in small doses makes us aware of our transgressions, grows us up, and draws us closer to him. 

Satan May not have access to our will, but our minds are an open target. Once he’s captured our minds and hearts he convinces us that we are worthless in Gods eyes. Why would God have great plans for the life of a nobody...a sinner? He just wouldn’t. These thoughts many refer to as ‘stinkin thinkin’ keep us so beaten down that we feel totally undeserving of anything Godly and good, including  Including better jobs, decent friends and the future of hope God promised us.

This is why It is so important that we establish a close relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

Talk to him throughout the day, every day! Ask him what he wants you to do to help yourself and better your life. Believe me when I tell you, God has wonderful plans for each of us. He wants us to fulfill those plans so we flourish and He receives the glory! He gave us each skill sets; one a florist, one a cook, one a mechanic, one with mad math skills, one a doctor, one a missionary, one a teacher, one a pastor...the list is endless! If you are in a job you’re not enjoying, or only doing for the money, ask him what He wants you to be doing. I believe that whatever it is, is something you already enjoy. 

He loves us so very much. “"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:7-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Don’t ever be afraid to ask him to help you.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Once we feel crappy about our selves, even when we try to climb out of our pit, he brings along his buddy, the Spirit of Offense. He takes delight in making us feel inferior, even when there’s absolutely no reason for it. We should we shy from good job opportunities, quality men and women to date or spend time with?  Why in the world would we allow any old voice in our head to convince us that we’re not welcome at certain places that we would enjoy or would be beneficial to us. He uses the thoughtless comments of unsuspecting people to hurt our feelings. With that in mind, we can fully understand that although it is God's nature to influence us with the truth, it is the devils nature to influence us with lies. And he is ruthless, He uses anyone he can find to get those lies inside of our minds and hearts because once He gets us to believe the lies, we will never discover God's will for our lives. As humans, we have a tendency to blame others, decide they are rude to us, or they hurt our feelings, we rarely take the time to consider who or what is the true influencing factor, instead we go with what we believe is the obvious. 

“Attempting to defeat the enemy by wrestling with people could be likened to trying to destroy a tree by picking all of the fruit.” Lisa Bevere

Satan is out to destroy, and the more he destroys, the happier he is. He doesn’t care one iota about us, his battle is with God.  He stops at nothing, or no one, including Jesus himself.
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“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” Matthew‬ ‭4:1-11‬ ‭ESV‬

Jesus was able to outsmart him because He Loved and understood His Fathers words and He believed and memorized them. He spent many hours meditating over them and those words equipped Him to do His fathers work. This serves as an example to all of us to press into God's word. In  2 Corinthians 10, Paul explains the importance of our having the ability to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exulted itself against the knowledge of God and bring captivity to the obedience of Christ.

However, Satan doesn't just attack our mind, he attacks our bodies as well by encouraging sins of the flesh. Our bodies are living temples where the Holy Spirit resides. He does whatever he can to remind us of any and all guilty pleasures, or sins of the flesh. Paul reminds us that our bodies house the Holy Spirit. 

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:19-20‬ ‭ESV‬

 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans‬ ‭6:12-14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Because Satan knows each of us very well, he holds the keys to each of us, he knows both our past and our future, so he knows who, how and when to target us individually. 

“ I believe that the spiritual attacks on your life have much more to do with who you might be in your future than who you have been in the past.”

Lisa Bevere- from Girls with Swords. Why women need to fight Spiritual Battles

It is very important that we know in our hearts that God's grace is sufficient. He is our creator and he adores us. You can always count on him and be thankful for his goodness. Doing so fills our hearts with thankfulness, which makes praise easier, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Spend time in His word. 
There are a few really great apps for your  phone or tablet that makes reading or listening to the Bible easy. I personally love ‘You Version’. You Version has several versions of the Bible available to read or listen to, as well hundreds of different reading plans, videos, graphic scripture posts and more. It’s pretty amazing. Plus, because it is an app for your phone or tablet, it makes it so convenient to dive into The Word every day, anyplace. 

Another important thing to do is to ask Him to change you, and take away your low self esteem or that prideful nature that Satan loves to dine on and replace those or any rough qualities with some he wants you to have. Tell Him that you want to be more like Him and less like who you once were. He will be delighted to comply. 
When feelings of self doubt creep in; and they will, when Satan rips your carpet of self esteem right out from underneath your feet, when you wake up in a cold sweat with his ugly hands gripping your throat or when you feel for even a split second that you are not worthy of every last detail of the plan God has for your life start praising! 
PRAISE GOD!  Thank Him for every single blessing in your life from your running water and flushing toilet  to your last bag of rice. From your broken fingernail or skinned knee to your loss of job or disease...He will hear you and He will recognize your voice and He will be there to help and love you through it. Soon you will be a light, and nothing can turn out the light on the inside!

Pastor Jim Staley said, “ The enemy doesn’t like the light for it dispels the darkness. We are on one side, and he is on the other. He’s deceiving us that he’s not even there. If he can infiltrate our bodies, he can infiltrate our friends, our churches, and our work places with out us even knowing. He can’t touch us physically, but our free will allows us to be used.” When we form a strong bond with Christ, and become a light, we can smile and know that Satan may have tried to steal our joy, but God will guide us through it, because our lives are is none of his business. 

LS Revised 11-2019, 10-2020