Adversary

Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. I Peter 5:8 (ESV)

An adversary is defined as one who contends with, opposes or resists.  You and I are contending with a great adversary.  Whether we acknowledge him or not.  He is alive and very active.  The American church has not prepared the body of Christ to deal with him.  In fact, in my opinion, we mostly do not acknowledge him for fear that we will give him more attention. In reality, perhaps we just don’t believe that he has that much power.  I fear that we have left our pastoral families wide open for attack.   We have devoted very little time in training our Ministry wives in the area of spiritual warfare and how to engage without being non-biblical or ineffective.

In the past few days, I have been reminded of the battle we are facing. The days are evil.  You and I must dress for battle and be ready on our knees with the sword of the spirit.  Our adversary is already defeated but acts as if he is not.  As a defeated foe, he will reek havoc as long as he can.  His first and most powerful tool is to intimidate us and render us ineffective.  His ultimate desire is to mock the One who is greater than he.  Our God is the creator of this universe versus our adversary who is a created being who became prideful and came against his Creator and our God.

Don’t think for a minute he will not come after you.  You are your Creators most prize creation.  Your adversary desires to discredit you and our God by destroying your witness and rendering you powerless.  He is aggressive.  I share this not to cause you more fear but rally you to be ready and prepared.  We must become wise to his schemes and be ready to fight a good fight until our Lord takes us home or until Jesus returns.  Sticking our heads in the ground is not an option but standing up, suiting up and storming the gates of hell is what we must be ready to do.  Evil is advancing and desires to destroy the impact we have as ministry families.

I believe that we just get plain scared and we end up hiding.  Leighann McCoy author of Spiritual Warfare for Women is a Pastors’ Wife, Author, Women’s ministry leader and Bible Study teacher.  She says, “We rose to the top of Satan’s list when we married our (pastor) husbands.  Part of our call is to live the message in the spotlight…..How much greater the damage to God’s kingdom when His pastors’ marriages fail!”  I would add that the damage is as equally great when the Pastor or any member of his family fails.

We must be on alert.  May it never be said that we gave ground to the enemy because we did nothing.  So let’s address the areas that Leighann has called to the forefront of our battlefield. She brings to light 5 areas that satan will target:

• Satan targets our marriages
• Satan targets our children
• Satan targets our friendships with other women
• Satan targets our health
• Satan targets our church

None of us are exempt.  Ephesians 6:10-18 gives us instruction and the command of suiting up in “spiritual armor”.  Sylvia Gunter, author of “Prayer Portions” has written a prayer for praying on the armor.  You can find it in her smaller book entitled,  ” For the Family”.  A great resource for you and I as we battle on our knees.

Without recounting all of the recent events from this summer, you and I know our nation and our world are on a very slippery slope.  This week as I have been heartbroken over events, I have prayed with my daughters who have expressed being heartbroken and having feelings of betrayal.  I have spoken with prayer partners who have expressed, “What is happening?”  And other mature believers who are shocked by news that is coming to the forefront.

When crisis arise, most women I know spring into action.  The most important action we can take ladies is to fall on our knees in intercession.  We must take up the armor and began to intercede daily for our husbands, our children, our girl friends, our health and the church.  We must become strategic in our prayer time and we must not stop until He takes us home.   I haven’t seen “War Room” yet but at the end of one of the trailers there is a woman in her prayer closet praying.  She ends her prayer with these words, “Raise them up Lord!  Raise them up!”  Ladies, I’m calling you out!  We must clear everything else away and pray like we have never prayed before.  We were born for such a time as this!  Will you join me in interceding for our world today?

Praying for you! Stand firm! The battle is upon us and there is a world to win to Jesus!

Diane

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