Spiritual Warfare – How Can the Belt of Truth Stop Fear from Opening the Door to Trouble?

Let the Truth of God’s Goodness Put a Stop to Fear

Spiritual warfare requires understanding the truth that…

God is good.

There is no promise that once you become a Christian bad things won’t happen.

However, it is key to know that God is not the source of trouble;

He is our source of help.

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.”
– Nahum 1:7

Where Does Trouble Come From?

Whether you acknowledge it or not, we have a spiritual enemy: the devil. The Bible tells us that anything that kills, steals, or destroys comes from the devil. Then it goes on to say that Jesus gives life and life more abundantly. (John 10:10)

We must not blame God for the attacks from satan. God is always good and never does anything bad. He is not even able to do anything bad and does not like to see people suffer. (James 1:16-17) He is a just God.

What Opens the Door to Trouble?

Fear opens the door to attacks.  First off, because putting on fear and worry is like putting on blinders to the goodness of God. Second, because those things we fear and fill our thoughts with will come to pass. (Job 3:25)

A great example of this is the account of Job in the Bible. God blessed him greatly and this made satan jealous. So the enemy began to attack Job with fearful thoughts. Job’s fear and worry of losing his family and possessions began to blind him of God’s goodness and opened the door to trouble. The enemy then attacked his children, his possessions, and his health. And to top it off, the enemy had him convinced the Lord was to blame.

How Do We Overcome Trouble When the Attacks Come?

When attacks of the enemy come we need to fight to overcome them. Begin speaking the Word of God and put on the belt of truth. Replace the destructive, fearful thoughts and words with truth and life giving words. Memorize and repeat Nahum 1:7 to start with.

The law of attraction goes to work bringing into your life the dominant thoughts of your heart, whether they are good or bad.

Have patience, like Job, and remember trials are only temporary. Even though Job, through his fear and ignorance thought God caused his trouble, he never turned from God. He cursed his situation, but NOT God.

Get a greater understanding of the goodness of God and cry out to Him in your time of trouble. What the enemy intends for bad, God can turn to good. Blessings never come from turning away from the Lord, but only as we move closer to Him and obey His Word.

We Must Not Blame God for Trouble!

It is vital to recognize that the source of evil is from satan and God is always good. We should never blame God for the things the enemy does to kill, steal, and destroy. In the midst of trials and the storms of life, keep trusting in God with patience. Be strong in the Lord, and the power of His might. (Ephesians 6:10)

Choose to open the door to let God work in your life. When trouble comes, choose to turn toward Him. Job’s faith and patience resulted in the Lord blessing him with twice what he had before.

Make no mistake about it; it is possible to remain standing when trouble comes. The Lord knows we have attacks from the evil one and battle spiritual warfare. That is why He provided us His Word and tells us to put on the whole armor of God. So put on the belt of truth today, stand strong, and allow the Good God to be your stronghold in the day of trouble.

May your understanding of God’s goodness strengthen your relationship with Him and increase your life with growing prosperity!

God bless you,
Brenda

Spiritual Warfare – How Does The Shield of Faith Help When the Attacks Come?

Discover How to Take the Power Out of the Attacks by Putting on
the Shield of Faith!

Spiritual warfare requires responding to attacks with the Shield of Faith.

Sometimes the attacks come at our thoughts with the power of suggestion. Other times it may be in the form of sickness, accidents, poverty, or tragedy.

In all cases, we must react immediately to the attack with faith.

A Battle to Fight: The Enemy

Don’t be fooled, lest satan should get an advantage on you.

Throughout the Bible, in verses such as 2 Corinthians 2:11, we are told not to be fooled of his devices. This is important to be aware of, because if we are not conscious of the true source of trouble, we may fall guilty to blaming God.

“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is.”
– C.S. Lewis

Attacks are going to come. That is part of life on earth regardless who you are. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, the enemy is regularly throwing his fiery darts at us.

Do we really see the enemy hand behind the attacks?

There is a whole lot more going on behind the scenes of our lives than the majority of us have been led to believe.

Keep in mind: As believers we have the image of God reflected in a us. This does not please the enemy. My greatest battles in life have come after purposing to step out in some way for God.

A Battle to Fight: Power to Overcome

The Lord wants to protect us from attacks. That is why He provided us His Word and tells us to put on the whole armor of God.

The Shield of Faith is part of the armor and designed to render harmless the fiery darts that come our way. Be aware that we cannot stop the attacks from coming, but we can stop them from having a lasting effect.

Regardless of the type of attack, we must stand ready to repel the enemy plan with the Word of God spoken in faith. Remember, we are to live by faith.

Stand in the Battle: You are Not Alone

Jesus is a great example of how to stand against the enemy and overcome.

He was tempted by satan through the power of suggestion. Notice that He was not passive about the attacks in His thoughts. He always took immediate action and repelled the suggestions with the Word of God. This caused satan’s darts to quickly become extinguished. Christ aggressively answered each barrage with faith.

“If we would endeavor, like men of courage, to stand in the battle, surely we would feel the favorable assistance of God from Heaven.” – Thomas A Kempis

Shield your heart, mind, and body. Our faith should be in every promise God made to us. We all have different levels of faith in different areas.

If your faith is weak in an area build it up by listening to the Word of God on that subject. Meditate on verses that will help your faith in that area.

Examples of Responding to Attacks in Faith:

For bad thoughts, fear, and negative suggestions:
Resist by saying God has given me a spirit of power, and love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

For sickness and physical attacks:
Resist by saying Jesus took my infirmities and bore my sickness, and by His stripes I am healed. (Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24)

For poverty attacks:
Resist by saying my God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

For persecution attacks:
Resist by saying no weapon formed against me shall prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)

Case in Point: The Shield of Faith repels not only attacks on our minds, but circumstances as well. Stand strong and have courage knowing that all the attacks are rendered harmless when we rise to meet them in faith.

May you walk by faith and continue to experience a life of growing prosperity!

God bless you -
Brenda

Spiritual Warfare – How to Overcome with the Powerful Authority Provided You?

Fight Spiritual Attacks with Spiritual Weapons!

Spiritual warfare is real and it is important to understand this raging battle between the Word of God and the forces of darkness. Once you acknowledge the battle at hand, you’ll understand the need for the authority Christ gave to His believers.

What Authority Do We Have?

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  — Jesus Christ (Luke 10:19)

Keep in mind, poisonous reptiles and insects were something that the early church leaders regularly encountered. They had to battle this type of attack from the enemy, while spreading the Gospel, and they also had to deal with demonic spiritual activity.

Today, as believers, we may not regularly face serpents and scorpions, but we do face fear, rejection, persecution, hatred, sickness, poverty, and such. But we are not powerless, because Jesus gave us power to overcome all the attacks of the enemy.

Who is the Battle Against?

First let’s look at what we are up against. Spiritual warfare is a battle against unseen demonic spirit beings that use people. Our real enemies are not people.  And because they are not flesh, we cannot fight them physically. Unfortunately, because they are unseen, many people don’t believe they even exist.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” – Ephesians 6:12

Spiritual attacks are fought with spiritual armor and weapons. The Lord tells us to put on the whole armor of God, which He provided us, so that we will be able to stand against the evil one. (Ephesians 6:13) The armor helps defend us from the enemy’s fiery darts that come at us.

How Do We Use Our Authority?

God gave us an offensive weapon that will penetrate the spirit world. It is called the Sword of the Spirit. This is the Word of God.

“The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” – Hebrews 4:12

A sword used to be the most powerful weapon and was compared to the Word of God to represent the power available in the Word. Today we have much more powerful weapons available, but you get the idea.

The Word of God, when spoken by a believer, can penetrate the spirit world and cause harm to the enemy and stop him in his tracks.

Most of the attacks of the enemy are aimed at filling the minds of people with lies so that they cannot think clearly about God’s truth. Jesus told us that the devil is the father of all lies and there is no truth in him. (John 8:44)

Specific Instructions

We exercise our spiritual authority in Christ by speaking the Word of God directly to the enemy.  There is no instruction in the Bible to pray to God to stop the devil. Nor are we to just ignore him.

The instructions given say to resist him and give him no place. (Ephesians 4:27, James 4:7). Believers are also empowered to cast him out. (Mark 16:17)

We are to use our authority and speak directly to the enemy, like Jesus did, and command him to stop. When satan attacked the thoughts of Jesus, He immediately responded by saying ‘It is written’, and spoke the Word of God. (Matthew 4)

Work the Word and watch it work!

Now that you are armed with this information; use it. We are not powerless to resist outlaw spirits that challenge us and our mission. Power is available in the Word of God to overcome evil. It is our responsibility to use the authority Jesus has provided. If we will take authority over the enemy, we can cause his plans to backfire on him every time.

May you put the power of the Word of God to work in your life daily and continue to experience a life of growing prosperity!

God bless you,
Brenda

A Little Spiritual Warfare Venting and Rambling for today…

What the Enemy Intends for Bad – God Will Work for Good!

First, I want to apologize to you for the website being down for almost three days.

My web host provider had some unexpected issues over the weekend that took my site down and it just went live again mid-day today!  I’m thankful God answered my prayer and the site is back up without errors.

It definitely gave me practice with patience, overcoming frustration, etc.!

It also had me thinking about spiritual warfare and reflecting back on things in life. You know, I’m finally getting old enough, and wise enough, to realize things aren’t just coincidence. And that the enemy of this world is up to more than we realize…

I started thinking about my site going down and how it not only was in the group that went down, but it was the last one to get back up and running. I’ve had many other sites over the years, either personally or that I’ve managed for others. Never have I experienced this type of down time.

Yet none of the other sites were related to spiritual matters and encouraging people to keep God first in life.

As I reflected back, it is clear that the times in my life that I’ve had the most attacks and trials were either times that I clearly chose to walk away from God, and do my own thing, or times when I decided to step out in a significant way for the Lord.

When I chose to do my own thing in the past, and disobey God, it is understandable that I was going to have to face the consequences of those wrong choices.

However, it used to appear like bad timing when trouble would bombard me during the times I was trying to do the right thing.

For instance, when I purposed to start attending church regularly – BAMM – attacks! When I bought a new Bible and study materials to get into the Word – BAMM – attacks! When I got myself and my girls involved in a good church and started volunteering – BAMM – attacks!

Earlier this year, when I decided to finally move forward and put this site up, I was at first constantly amazed at how so many details easily fell into place and worked out. I thank God often for the provision and ability He continues to give me to be able to do this.

Yet there is, once again, clearly this battle going on at the same time…

On one hand, I know God is helping me and guiding me and adjusting me as I go. However, on the other hand, I am again battling attacks. I seem to have gotten a whole whammy of them since I started this site. Physical attacks against my health, mental attacks against my thoughts, and also attacks against my finances and relationships.

They left me doubting if I should be doing this and I did and continue to keep praying for wisdom and guidance. Everything in me keeps saying move forward.

Well anyway – today I started to get mad, thinking about the enemy attacking me (and I also know of a few others personally under attack for stepping out in a significant way to serve God). I feel like battle on!

God is on my side, how can I lose? What the devil intends for bad, my God will work to good!

I serve a really Good God, and a really Big God! And He has helped me overcome the attacks of the enemy. My health and thought life is better … and my relationships are better … and God gave me some ideas and the energy lately to start implementing them that will improve my finances.

Plus on top of it all, with each attack the enemy has thrown at me… I’ve not only come through, but I’ve come through stronger, wiser, and learning how to use the Word of God to lessen the impact of the attacks. I’ve experienced to a greater degree the importance of not living with doubt and fear, but remaining confident and living by faith.

I refuse to let the enemy steal my joy!

My main web site (and others) went down for almost three days – and No – I was not happy about it, but the funny thing is – I didn’t get emotionally upset. I knew that God was going to take care of things and I was able to maintain a peace in the midst of this little storm of life.

I did get mad at the devil though and it has spurred me to write a few articles on spiritual warfare.

Okay – I’m done venting and rambling on… and I’ll end now with this:

“The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” 
- Hebrews 4:12

“The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:3

“Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.”
– 2 Corinthians 2:14

“May the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
– Hebrews 13:21

May you walk close to God and your life be filled with growing prosperity!

God bless you & keep you –
Brenda

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, or suggestions on the subject…

How On Earth Do You Stand Steadfast When Your World is Crashing In?

Discover strength to make it through your storm stronger than you started!

Within the last week I’ve had a number friends and family share with me that they are hanging on by a thread and going through some very difficult trials. Some lost loved ones, another has a family member with a terminal cancer diagnosis, and also another is struggling mentally with panic attacks and anxiety.

It just so happens that last night at mid week service, my pastor shared a very encouraging message on standing steadfast during trials. So I thought I would try to summarize and share as encouragement…

For starters, he pointed out that there are some things that will never be developed in us without going through the struggles of life. After the storm, you will know and be able to say … ‘if it hadn’t been for the Lord’.  Your confidence and trust in the Lord will increase and you’ll know it wasn’t your own doing that brought you through.

No doubt about it, when there’s a knock on the door at the midnight hour you need more than your own strength or theory of who God is. You need God – with no trepidation and fear. You need to KNOW God. And you need to know God did not bring you this far to leave you now. God is your very present help in time of trouble.

Bear in mind also, if your heart is still beating you are a target for the devil. But what the devil meant for bad, God can turn to good! God’s grace is sufficient for you during your trials. 

Like my pastor often says, ‘Life is life for everyone’.

In 1 Peter 4:12 it tells you not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice. James 1:2 says to count it all joy (throw a party my pastor likes to say) when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Some key references to help you through the storm:

Temptation is common, but God is faithful and will provide a way of escape.  (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Many are the afflictions of the righteous but God delivers them out of them all. (Psalm 34:19)
The waters will not overflow us and the fire will not burn us because the Lord is our God and He is with us. (Isaiah 43:2-3)
When I am weak, then I am strong through Him. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
Cast All your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Are you with me? You must remember that you are not staying in the trial, but going through. To overcome your trials the word of God must abide in you.  We are told in 1 Peter 5:9 to resist the devil steadfast in our faith (get more scripture happy). Standing steadfast is speaking only what the word of God says.

It’s no secret that, many of our struggles are attacks from the enemy. But we have help to overcome. The sword of the spirit is the spoken word of God and an offensive weapon. We have the ability to speak and chose our words, so chose them wisely. Imitate Jesus when He was tempted and say ‘it is written’, ‘it is written’, ‘it is written’ and speak what is written in the word of God over your situation.

Don’t abandon ship during the storm, because we are told in 1 Peter 5:10 that after we have suffered a while, the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, will make us perfect, established, strengthened, and settled. God’s grace is sufficient to bring us through the storm better developed than ever before.

May God strengthen and develop you as you overcome trials through your faith in Him!

God bless you,
Brenda