Stand Up – Stand Firm!

I want to start this article by reminding us of some verses that we have all probably read a hundred times or more. However, as you read them now, choose to read them like you are approaching brand new information. Slow yourself down. Allow yourself to really meditate on the message.

Ephesians 6

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with Truth and having put on the Breastplate of Righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; 16 in addition to all taking up the Shield of Faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

As most ministers families, our family has been through struggles and suffered heartache, as have many of you. We have felt resistance to plans we knew God was laying out, but we have casually prayed that we would have victory over the enemy. Over the past few weeks God has led me on a journey that has taken my deeper into spiritual warfare than I have ever been before. Up to this point in my 26 years of journeying with the Lord, I have never had to depend solely on the Lord and the strength of His might…until now. I thought I understood the armor, but it has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Because this situation is so fresh and because of the nature of the situation, I cannot go into details. But I want you to share with you in this article the first part of what God is teaching me.

1. There is a battle going on. I work with hurting people everyday and on some level I have been aware that the enemy is and has been involved in the daily struggles these dear people endure. Until recently, I had no idea how real and how grueling this battle actually is. God brought me to a point in my faith in which I knew I had 2 options: I could remain sitting down on the sidelines, refusing to pay attention to the reality around me; or I could stand up, get off the comfortable sidelines (where I might feel an arrow now and then but for the most part stay comfortably “safe”) and fight in this war. I realized by making the choice to fight, I put myself on the front lines and opened my family and I up to direct attacks. (Side note: These attacks came last week and I was not ready for them.)
2. If I don’t fight, I forfeit the victory. God wants to do way more in my life and in the lives of the people around me than I realize. (Eph 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”) If I sit on the sidelines and refuse to fight in the battle in which God has called me to fight, I forfeit the victories He wants to bring me. I forfeit the victories He wants to bring to the lives of the people He has placed in my life to fight along side.
3. Our battle is with a wicked, spiritual enemy who hates me and hates God even more. The Enemy will stop at nothing to keep people in their pain. He will attack innocent children to stop their parents from fighting against him. He will use such sufferings as sickness to distract us from putting on the armor and standing firm so that he can side swipe us and maintain his control over lives. He is no respecter of age and he does not fight us with any compassion or mercy. I can choose to recognize who my enemy is or I can live in denial, allowing him to continue doing what he is doing with no resistance from me. The Enemy hates us because God loves us. He hates God even more and desires to destroy anything or anyone that could bring God glory.
4. The physical world we live in is directly impacted by the constant battle that is raging in the spiritual world. This means that the thoughts we think, the emotions we feel, the struggles we have in our lives are directly impacted by a constant spiritual battle that we cannot see. Most of the time we try to fix the “soul” problems we have through physical solutions rather than by applying spiritual ones. This can be likened to us trying to trim back the weeds we have in our garden rather than pulling them up by their roots. Until we choose to believe this fact, we will continually try to put bandages on symptoms because we see the symptoms as the problem rather than fighting the real problem.
5. God has given us all we need to fight in battle. I again have a choice. If I choose to get off the sidelines and fight in the battle, the enemy will fight back. He has had thousands of years to perfect his battle plans. He has been watching me all my life. He knows my weaknesses and he is a master of deception. However, God has not only given us everything we will need to fight in battle; God has given us all we need to be Victorious in battle. (Eph 6:13-17)

I can hear many of you asking the question, “This is really good information Dr. A, but how in the world does this relate to the topic of Body, Soul, and Spirit?” You ask a very good question. You see, because we don’t live in the spiritual world we don’t see the battle or the battle plans. But we know from scripture that the enemy attacks our body and our soul (mind, will, & emotions). Because we are saved, the Holy Spirit resides in our spirit. The enemy no longer has access to our spirit, which was once dead but is now alive in Christ Jesus. By using the tools God has given us, we not only know what we need to do for protection, we also know how to fight.

In the second part of the article, we will talk about how the Armor of God works. We will talk about the importance of knowing and believing the truth of God so that the rest of the armor can be stabilized and work in proper order. We will also talk more specifically about how cleaning out the garbage in our lives (the lies we believe based on the circumstances and hurts we have experienced) gives the enemy less to hold on to and less to use as ammunition in our lives.

I have no idea what circumstances you are facing in your life right now. I have no idea what thoughts, beliefs, and emotions these circumstances are bringing up for you. I do know that the circumstances you face are a direct result of what is going on in the spiritual world. I might not know what it looks like, but I do know that you already have the victory. My question to you is this: Will you Stand Up? Will you Stand Firm? Will you Fight?

Praying we fight as wise women of God,

Dr. A