Winning



This devotional, properly applied, has the potential to change your life in a simple yet significant way: it can help you win the spiritual war. Before you can achieve victory in your life, you have to first win the spiritual war. Although it might seem strange, you’re probably not that unfamiliar with the underlying concept.

Let’s say that over the course of the next several months you begin to develop an unknown sickness. You’re lethargic, you’re losing weight, maybe you develop a persistent cough or weakening eyesight. Whatever it is, on the outside you may look like there’s nothing wrong, but you know that there’s something wrong inside of you. You can’t see what’s wrong, but you can sense it. Even though it’s unseen doesn’t mean it’s not real. So what do you do? You go to doctor after doctor and run test after test until you figure out what’s causing your malady. Once the problem is diagnosed, then you can begin to treat it.

In the same way, whether you know it or not you are constantly engaged in spiritual warfare. Like a sickness or disease it is unseen but very much real and can bring untold heartache to your life. Over the course of the next several weeks my prayer is that it will help you diagnose your spiritual warfare and give you practical tools to win the spiritual war. When you’re sick, you’re not good for much else. A strong sickness will take the legs out right from underneath you. In the same way, spiritual warfare can make you spiritually imprisoned and ineffective. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As believers we’ve been given specific weapons to win the war in the spiritual. Let’s start winning those battles together.

ON THE COUCH WITH GOD

1. What’s the worst sickness/illness you ever encountered? How much potential does something unseen have to wreak havoc on your life?

2. How spiritually aware are you of the spiritual warfare raging all around you? Can you sense it, or does the spiritual world seem like blankness, like nothing’s out there? What do you think is affecting your spiritual sensitivity?

NEXT STEP

UTake a moment and try to diagnose your spiritual health at this moment. Try and be as specific as possible. If this is a new concept, don’t stress, just give it your best shot. Take a minute and write it down.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Danger

Image
If you’re reading this right now then be warned. This devotional to spiritual warfare is a bit dangerous, not to you, but to your way of life. If ignorance is bliss, it aims to destroy that bliss forever. Imagine living in a house infested with termites. For years you never noticed them. Just beyond reach, just out of sight, they lived, they ate, they spawned, they festered. For all those years you blindly ate, played, and slept, unaware of the lurking presence right beneath your head at night. If you live in a house full of termites is it better to know or is it simpler to live in ignorance? If you prefer ignorance, then stop reading right now. If you don’t want to know about the spiritual forces that have been eating away at the foundation of your life and family like termites, then there’s no need to go any farther. Ignorance is in fact bliss, at least for the short term. This book’s aim is nothing short of ripping up the base boards, pulling out the sheetrock and exposing the d...
Read more

Worship

Image
Text: Psalm 104.24-35 Psalm 104 starts and ends with the words, “Praise the Lord, my soul”. The beginning and the end are a proclamation of praise to the Almighty God. In fact, the whole psalm is a review of the greatness of God in creation and, therefore, a meditation on God’s providence. To consider such things, helps us to draw closer to God and worship Him. If we are sincere with ourselves, our daily situations (children, work, news, stress, etc.) can take our attention away from God. It is not easy to just plug-in and worship the Lord. I find myself missing so much of God’s creation, because my mind wanders off to my daily concerns. My wife calls me to really see the beauty around us, otherwise I would miss it. How easy it is for us to be carried away and not once lift our eyes to the Lord, and worship Him that created the earth. Let us open our spiritual eyes, God has revealed through the authors of the Psalms that all of creation is called to worship. It is not just appreciation...
Read more

Fight Together

Image
Stand . . . Take . . . Pray. Ephesians 6:10, 14, 18 The final step in successful spiritual warfare is one that is as critical as the others but it is far too easily missed. The last step isn’t a specific verse or a piece of armor mentioned, but rather a verb tense. When most Americans read the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, we read it through the lens of our individualistic, self-focused mindset. We worry about ourselves first and foremost. As harsh as it sounds, everyone else can fend for themselves. But that’s not the intention at all behind Paul’s instructions on spiritual warfare. When Paul tells us to stand firm, to take the pieces of armor, to pray, the verb is not in the singular form, it’s in the plural. To use Southern language, it’s as if he’s saying, “Y’all stand, y’all take, y’all pray.” Why is this important? Because too often our defeat in spiritual warfare comes from the fact that we try and engage in it on our own. And please understand this: if the enemy ha...
Read more