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Truth: The Soul Armor

Truth is our Soul Armor

 

The other day, as I fell into bliss thinking about God and all He has done and is doing in my life, a jolt brought me back to the fullness of reality – there is a battle going on.

After talking with an acquaintance who is an unbeliever, God reminded me of the realness of the evil at work and the spiritual battle taking place, in lives like hers; one that I need to always be aware of, ready for, and engaged in – not in la-la land.

The spiritual warfare is strong. It can seem overwhelming when you look at all the evil in this world (blatant evil and evil disguised as good), but He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

As God’s children, we need to realize this power we’ve been given and use it. When we are prepared and fighting, we are more powerful than we know in the methods of spiritual warfare like speaking truth, acting in love (true love), praise, prayer, and fasting. Jesus Christ has given us the power to trample the enemy (the self-will; individually and collectively). He has given us ALL power over the enemy Luke 10:19. We need to use what we’ve been given. How do you use it? Know the truth, know your enemy, and know the power that works in and through you and act on it.

Battling in the Mind

I’ve been learning to fight the spiritual battle that occurs in our minds. The enemy feeds us lies whether through the messages of society, others, religion, and so on. It’s a brilliant strategy on his part, because if we believe those lies we act on them, then WE destroy ourselves. However, if we know the truth, those lies have no power. As I saw on the back of car – Truth, Soul Armor – how true that is!

In our spiritual walks, we come to a point were we “get it”. You can see this in Apostle Paul’s writing. There is a deep knowing of the truth, that gives him an incredible power in his life and over the enemy. Though we are always learning, we come to a point of knowing that the battling in our minds gets easier in a sense, thus us stronger. It reminds me of Neo in the movie the Matrix (movie I recommend full of interesting symbolism). As he understood that the enemies he saw were actually computer code he could alter, he battled effortlessly. His understanding of the truth was his power to defeat the enemy.

Getting to that point of discerning the truth from the lies is a process. We start blinded to the lies and therefore live by them. As we abide in God’s truth, the lies start to become unveiled. As truth takes ownership in our souls, we are equipped to fight the lies we’ve lived by for so long. At first, it’s difficult because they are so “engrained”. Yet, over time as we continue abiding, our clarity and understanding expands and discerning truth becomes easier. Like Neo, the truth gives us power to defeat our enemies. The moment a lie crosses the pathways of our mind, we recognize it for what it is and disregard it. We block every attack with ease and thus victory. 1 John 5:4 Truth, Soul Armor.

What the Holy Spirit reminded me the other day was once people take in the lies; they are opening up to much more.

Battling Spiritual Forces

Without truth, we invite all sorts of evil into our lives. Many, even those named Christians who lack a love for the truth, and are falling into the hands of the enemy. (M’kayla’s Korner) 2 Thessalonians 2:10. And at that point, what are they opening up their spirits to?

Ephesians 6:12 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.

In the movie, when Neo first learned the truth, the true state of world he lived, the extent of deception, and the real evil that existed – it was hard for him to believe it. It seemed unreal. But it didn’t change the fact that it was very real. This world has done a good job of making the presence of evil non-existence or comical. More and more the happenings of life are explained disconnected from the spiritual, the real spiritual, another clever tactic of the enemy. If we don’t know or recognize our enemy, it doesn’t change whether we are being impacted by it, and it completely affects our ability to “fight” it. Suppose you were in a physical fight. Your opponent was obliterating you, yet you refused to believe he was the reason for your pain. You felt the sting of the blows and the wounds on your body, but you didn’t believe he was attacking you. You intellectually explained it as something else. By not admitting the truth, how could you ever win? You couldn’t. You have to know your enemy in order to defeat him. You have to know how he works. 2 Corin 2:11

It was a good reminder last week of the battle that is raging around us, the realness of it and how we’ve been given the power to defeat it. Realize the power you have in Christ over ALL power of the enemy. Don’t let the distractions of this world distract you from the battle we are in, the battle God is calling His people to fight.

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Heightened Spiritual Warfare

Heightened Spiritual Warfare

 

I feel we have entered into another degree of spiritual warfare; perhaps because the time of judgment is near or upon us??

In the past month, I’ve been seeing the warfare in my life, the lives around me, in the blogs I read. We are facing struggles and tribulation on a spiritual level that is affecting our daily lives. (the physical and the spiritual are connected – one affects the other.) We feel overwhelmed, burdened, discouraged, or depressed. When we are attacked at our core in our spirits then it makes dealing with the day to day stuff much more difficult. Proverbs 18:14 It makes small things seem big. It throws things out of perspective into the wrong perspective. Our trust in God wanes. Our steadfast belief that He is in control and will provide and protect us diminishes. His love feels distant. We begin to turn to the world’s wisdom instead of His. We can become fearful, timid, aggressive, or ineffective.

Then in my quiet time the other day I read Nehemiah 4:17 “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.” It struck me that what this verse is saying is what I had been feeling and what we need to do. We are being attacked to such a degree that we need to be ready for battle daily. Each day, we can no longer just focus on building the temple but we have to fight the spiritual battle as well. If we don’t recognize the attacks and fight the enemy we won’t be able to build. There has always been spiritual warfare, but lately it seems it has intensified.

As for building the temple, it’s not a physical temple we are building. It is a spiritual one and we, our spirits together, are the temple, the temple of God. We hold the spirit of God. The part of us that is a part of Him holds His spirit. Each one of our spirits is like a pillar. If our spirits are mal-nourished and lacking in truth, then they become like rotting broken down pillars.

We build by stirring the deep (spending one-on-one time building intimacy with God through His Word) each day. This is our work. John 6:29 Our work is to believe – to live in God’s wisdom and truth. Because our beliefs are the core to every thought and action. When our spirits are thriving and strong, then God’s spirit is strong within us and works through us in mighty ways in our lives and the lives of others. When we succumb to the attacks because we don’t recognize them for what they are, we become weak and neglect to be steadfast in our beliefs, which negatively impacts everything.

I believe that the time is upon us, where we need to build the temple with one hand and hold a weapon in the other.

The fantastic news is and what I am experiencing in my life is the mighty power that Jesus Christ gave us in the spiritual realm to defeat any and every enemy. Luke 10:19 However, we have to be aware of that power, use it through faith and prayer, and use it right when we need it, not wait.

Lately, as I have experienced more attacks, I’ve been prepared with the knowledge of the power that I have in Christ. When they come, I call upon God the enemy backs off. It is tremendous!

Who is the enemy? Most often ourselves, our flesh nature. We have an external evil warring against our spirits but even that enemy usually uses our weaknesses, our lack of knowledge of truth, our issues, our temptations, our desires, and our self-will to discourage and lead us astray.

These are challenging days, but God has laid out the tools before us to be more than conquerors in all that we face. It is our part to learn what tools are there and to pick them up and fight so we can continue to build.

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