By Erica Sawyer
Psalm 27
Some translations use the word “Army” some translations use the word “host”. I do like both.
Ephesians tells us: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
We ARE in a spiritual battle…this is not something that can be seen. These are invisible forces waging on all around us. These attacks come upon us in the form of thoughts in our heads, feelings, emotions.
1 Peter 5:
6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
The devil lurks.
He prowls around….
……..looking for somebody to devour.
He waits for the perfect time to strike.
He ambushes.
He knows exactly where your weaknesses are. Vulnerabilities. Desires. Fears. Anxieties. Worries. Cravings. Pride. He’s hungry. He is going to do everything he can to bring you down, sink his teeth in your flesh, prey on that jugular. He’s going to do it so fast you won’t even know what got you. You’ll be hemorrhaging, trapped in his jaws, traveling at the speed of light, unable to slow anything down so you can at least breathe. Oh, he’s got you right where he wants you.
But it’s not an army you can see. He’s not a lion in your living room.
They’re invisible invisible forces working against you.
‘Did God really say that?’
‘I don’t think you can do that!’
‘What if it doesn’t go the way I want it to?’
‘Just one more time won’t hurt.’
‘Just a little bit more.’
‘I’m only hurting myself.’
‘No one really cares anyway.’
If you could only see, if you can only see what was around you: the battle that is being waged, the war that’s roaring on, I bet it would blow your mind. Probably why much of that is hidden.
2 Kings 6:17
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
The story of Elisha is a great example of how his doubt was based only on what he could see with his finite eyes, but in fact when God opened his eyes to his infinite wisdom, he could see an army on the hills waiting to fight for him.
I love how Ravi Zacharias explains faith:
‘God has given us enough reason to make faith in him a most reasonable proposition but he has left enough reason out to make reason alone impossible.’
We have to have faith. It doesn’t mean I have to be stupid about it nor know everything there is to know about life. When I step onto an airplane, I understand it’s the laws of aerodynamics keeping me in the air, and I put my faith in that. I am not by any means an aeronautical engineer that understands the complexity of such science. But I certainly have faith in it.
I may not understand why things happen, when things happen but I do trust and believe in a God that loves me more than I can ever fathom, understand, comprehend, wrap my mind around. His love is not based upon anything that I have ever done for Him… it’s sacrificial. He wants nothing back–simply our acceptance. I have done nothing to earn it, I simply needed to accept it. That kind of love is not going to put you in harm’s way without a purpose.
There are things in life that just have no answers to. And even if they did would I really accept that answer anyhow?
Probably not.
I mean what kind of answer would be acceptable to taking people from us prematurely in this life?? Or seeing an innocent child suffer?? Or watching someone you love fall repeatedly??
Our ways are not his ways. He knows we won’t be able to really understand and comprehend the brevity of the entire operation He is commanding. It would blow our minds.
When Job questioned God, God responds with a machine-gun hailstorm of questions back at Job. Questions Job cannot answer apart from God!!
So he gives us a taste, He gives us a snippet…sometimes they’re good little bites and sometimes they taste like a chocolate-covered onion and you just want to spit it out once you’ve tasted it.
And other times they’re chocolate-covered poison; they taste good going down, but inevitably end up making you sick. Consequences are real and they do affect our lives. If you know eating rat poison is going to have fatal consequences, you would be an idiot to eat it if you didn’t WANT to die. Isn’t that how we approach life sometimes though?!
I’m speaking for myself here, folks.
God has given us great wonderful things to seek after, look for, find, treasure, hold on to, love.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Yet somehow, we think what God promises us are not good enough; so we seek after things like: expensive cars, big houses or maybe lots of houses, fancy clothes, lots of money, fame, power, social recognition…
Those don’t seem to quench the fire either. They’re just not satisfactory. It leaves you with nothing in the end except empty passenger seats, lonely family rooms, and stuffed closets.
So we need to be reminded that our battle is not of this world. Our battle is between what is waging on in our hearts, minds, and souls. God wants all three and wants you on His side in this war, as His leader in this dark world.
Scared?
He says He will provide you with all the weapons, power, and strength you will ever need in order to carry out the mission he has set before you.
You’re not alone. You have backup.
In fact, He wants to fight for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:24: He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Call upon Him….He answers. But ask BIG. Because He likes showing off his amazing glory.
What kind of glory you ask??
He will go so far as parting red seas, stopping the sun, and raising up dead people to keep you fighting this battle, soldier.
So put on His full armor…..and be ready to STAND.
A year ago when I originally wrote this, I was in a cosmic war with real demons. I had not really believed in such things happened in this country, let alone my house, so I ignored the obvious signs at first. However, once I began fighting the demons appropriately, with God’s Word, they began to flee.
Churches do not teach spiritual warfare enough. I’ve been to many churches and listened to many sermons over the past twenty years, (in fact we calculated it out that if I listened to two sermons a week for the past twenty years, I would have heard about 2080 sermons.) In all those sermons, I can honestly say I do not recall much talk about spiritual warfare.
If we could recognize demons for what they are, perhaps our generations coming up would be better equipped at fighting them.
Sure we battle against our flesh, but when our flesh becomes consumed, we are not longer fighting our flesh, it is now a demon.
PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Rage, Lust, Alcoholism, Addiction—these are all demons. And they need to be fought with God’s Word, the Blood of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s power, not with your own power and certainly not with anything man made.
Since I wrote this a year ago, God has made the prayers I prayed come to life in a huge way. God told me Jacob Sawyer was going to marry me when I had barely even spoken to him. By faith, I accepted that.
I never preached to Jacob about what I thought he should do. I simply prayed, and one by one, I watched God check each prayer off the “to do list”. God faithfully did what he promised he would do. He did it. I prayed.
I’ve seen the transforming power of the spirit of Christ transform in the life of Jacob. As his weapons increased, so did his ability to fight off battles in the mind. The anger is replaced with peace. The fear is replaced with faith. The lifeless heart is replaced with one that beats.
It is the Lord’s army that has fought this battle for Jacob and me. It was the Lord that answered the cries of my pleas for guidance. It was Jesus Christ that brought us to life from death.
I had no idea a year ago how Jacob was going to come to know the Lord, but it was promised to me. On December 9, 2018, I witnessed the holy spirit enter Jacob, and since then it has been the most amazing transformation I have ever seen.
Not only did God answer my prayer and doubts in ways above and beyond anything I ever imagined, he strengthened my faith to believe NOTHING is impossible with Christ.
“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
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