Under Attack

You see, I know that he’s after us because today, he’s after me.  In fact, he’s been stirring up crap for a couple of days, now.  I am not sure I am even going to put this piece of writing on my blog, but I am going to write it.  I’m going to write it because I want to call out the enemy on his schemes, and I want to tell him that he can’t have me. Not today.  Not today, devil.  You’ve thrown a BUNCH of stupid crap at me, and it has all been in perfect timing.  It’s like you wait until my life is spinning so fast that I can’t get my feet on the ground long enough to fight back. Congratulations.  You are very good at your job, but I won’t fall for it.  I won’t. I know I had some shaky moments where I thought maybe you were going to win, but I have something you don’t have. I have a lion behind me, and you don’t.

In Ephesians 6:12 it says, “ For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Powers of this dark world.

Spiritual forces of evil.

That’s who is after us.  I know it sounds scary, but there is light in the dark, and His name is Jesus.

The struggle isn’t an earthly one.  Satan doesn’t care one bit about the life we have here on Earth.  Rich or poor, popular or unpopular, best seller or invisible, he doesn’t care if I have a good life here.  There is a much bigger battle going on in your life than the things you see and experience.  From the outside, there may be the illusion of peace and prosperity, but make no mistake, there is a spiritual battle going on and YOU, my sweet friend, are the heavenly prize.

It’s simple, actually.  You are chosen.  God chose you, called you, and because of Jesus, He will save you and bring you safely to heaven for eternity.  Guess who won’t be there?  Satan.

You are chosen, and Satan is not.  And he is furious about it. When he looks at you he hates you.  He wants to stop you from going to heaven. He wants to send you to hell because you were made in the image of God, and if there is someone Lucifer hates more than you, it’s God. If you haven’t heard me, yet, I’ll say it again. If you have accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior of your life, Satan looks at you and hates you. 

So, he is after your eternity not your earthly life.

Now here is the twist: He will use your earthly circumstances to stop your eternity.  Does he really have the power to stop your eternity?  No.  The only way to enter the kingdom is by believing in Christ.  Satan does not have the keys to heaven, only Jesus has the power to let you in. If you don’t believe me that it’s that simple, go read John 14, where Jesus tells Thomas and the other disciples that the only way to God is through Him.

Satan cannot stop your entry into the Kingdom.  But you can.  You can choose not to go by choosing to walk away from Jesus.

If the enemy cannot stop you from going to heaven for eternity, the best he can do is convince you to give up and walk away from a relationship with Christ.  It’s the exact reason that Jesus must be your eternal best friend. That relationship alone is the one-way ticket to an eternity of bliss.  If the enemy can get you to walk away from that one relationship, he wins another soul for his team. There’s a team you do not want to join.  It comes with a one-way ticket to hell, and that is not a place I even like to think about.

How does the enemy get you to give up on your relationship with Christ?  By getting you to question whether you can trust him.  He gets you to question all that God has said over your life and gets you to believe that God isn’t who He says He is.

In Genesis 3: 1, the serpent (Satan in disguise) asks Eve, “Did God really say……?”

You see, even in the opening moment of humanity, the enemy was trying to get people to question God and His goodness. That’s his game.  To get you to question God.

Did God really say you should have written that book?

Did God really say you should have quit your job?

Did God really say you belong at this table?

Did God really say…..?”

He’s been after me for the last four days.  Seriously Folks.  I have spent days wrestling with these overwhelming fears and doubts about this season of my life.

And guess what?  Today was the day that the first people are posting and talking about my book.  Abby and Sammy, your early support in this journey has humbled me in ways you will never know. It is this seasonal shift that had the enemy so desperate to get me to quit this past weekend. 

You see, it doesn’t matter how old you are, how successful you are, or even how much you read or know about the Bible. The enemy wants your spirit for his eternal damnation.  He hates me, just like he hates you. He will do whatever it takes to get you to question God and to question whether you heard God right.

That’s the trick he uses on me.  He knows that I believe God is sovereign and can do anything He wants.  So, the enemy gets me to question my ability to hear God.

I never think to myself, “Did God really say…?”

What I always fall for is the question, “Are you sure that’s what God meant when he said…..?”

The enemy always gets me with questioning my interpretation of what God said, to believe that God can do anything, but that He won’t do it for me. Or that I didn’t hear God’s voice correctly.

For me, Satan often cannot get me to question God, but he is a master at getting me to question myself.

John 10: 27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

We are his sheep, and He is the great shepherd.  Now, believe it or not, I actually have some experience with sheep.  As a former 4H Sheep Showman, I know that sheep are stupid.  Very stupid.  Sorry to any sheep lovers, but they are dumb.  Cute? Absolutely.  Sweet?  For sure.  Smart?  Not. At. All.

My point is that if a sheep can hear the voice of Christ and follow, then I certainly can, too.  I am not the smartest person you know; I promise.  I am, however, smarter than a sheep.

I have to believe that I was created to hear from God.  I have to believe that if God put something in me, He isn’t going to let me mess it up because God doesn’t make mistakes.  I have to believe that God loves me so much that He wouldn’t let me get too far on a wrong path before changing my course.

I need to be honest with you, though.  These things are easier to say than they are to live out.  I have serious struggles when it comes to this stuff.  I think everyone does.  I am not saying these things because I have it all figured out.  I’m saying them because I need, in this very moment, to say them out loud for myself.  I am declaring these truths over my life without perfect belief.  But there is power in words, and maybe if I say them (or type them), I will have a better chance at planting them into my heart and maybe I’ll believe them more deeply today than I did yesterday.

My job is to be best friends with the One that created me and gifted me with the ability to hear. My job is to take action when He says take action, and my job is also to shut up and sit still when He tells me to shut up and sit still. (He tells me that second one a lot, and it is MUCH harder to obey that command than you can imagine.)

His job is everything else.  Like for real.

I believe that if I stay in constant communication with my best friend, Jesus, He will guide me.  The Bible says he is a lamp at my feet and a light on my path.  I have to just follow.  I believe that when I make a misstep, which I do…. a lot, that He will gently nudge me back on to the path.

I also believe that if I quit listening, and get seriously off the path, God has every right to take a baseball bat to my life and knock me back on track. (Or the dashboard of a pickup when I was 19. That’s a story for another day.)

I certainly think that gentle nudges sound much better than a baseball bat.  The way to keep myself on the path is to talk to Him every day, all day, constant on-going chatter between me and my Maker.

So here I am, toes on the edge of something big. Isn’t it just like the enemy to spend the last several days trying to get me to question everything I am sure I heard God say? Isn’t it just like him to come at me with all guns blazing the moment before some of my sweet friends publicly commended the book that I KNOW God wrote through me?  Of course, it makes sense that I was under attack. 

I am sure this isn’t the last I hear from that jerk.  It gives me some anxiety to think about the battles I have to face while doing the things God is asking of me.  I have moments where I feel like giving it up, playing it safe, staying small. I have weak moments, and I’m guessing that you do too.

I didn’t write this to help you.  I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. I wrote this to help me. To help me stand back up after days of attack. Stand up and hold my hands steady. Put both feet firmly on the ground and stand on my square in the face of the attack.  Being immoveable isn’t easy.  It’s horrible.

But is it worth eternity?  Yes.

If I help even one person find Jesus, is all this attack worth THEIR eternity?  Hell yes. (or is it heaven yes? I don’t know, but I know this little battle is totally worth someone else’s salvation.)

Is it worth the goodness that God is going to do through my life? 100% yes.

I pray that if you are under attack this week, this ministers to your spirit. I also pray that you see that you are not alone. You are part of an incredible team, one that ends up with the W in the end.  The Bible says so.

I am going to take a deep breath, cling to Jesus with all my strength, and get to marching forward.  I hope you can do the same.  Satan may have some really crappy tricks up his sleeve.  He may be working through some people in your life that you wish would see how he is using them to make you miserable. He may be taking advantage of the fact that you are tired, busy, worn out, or exhausted. He’s real mean like that. But he is only doing it because he cannot have what you have been given. Eternal glory with the One who created you. You are protected and covered by the blood of Jesus. No matter how scary the shadows, remember that they are just shadows and nothing more. You are safe because God keeps you safe.

So now I get up, and shake my fist at the Devil, “Not today, Satan. Not today.”

Oh! One more thing before I go fight my spiritual battles of the day. The Bible also says that Satan has to flee when we command him to go.  So, I will say for you and for me, “GET YOUR LYING SELF THE HECK OUT OF MY WAY, YOU DIRTY LITTLE LIAR. I PLEAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS OVER MY LIFE AND OVER THIERS.  SO, SCRAM!”